Book 1 : Demon of the Black Mist
by catnip513
Summary: What if Naruto had a twin sister whom the Kyuubi was sealed into? What if Sarutobi chose to make the sacrifice for Minato? What if the Sandaime asked a mysterious shinobi to watch over Naruto? Rated M for freedom.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Prologue

**Roooaaarrrrr!**

The Kyuubi roared as it was bombarded by numerous attacks by the Konoha shinobis.

The attacks did little to harm the beast however as it slowly approached the Hidden Leaf Village. With a swipe from its claw, several shinobis were brutally cut down by the demon fox.

As the nine-tailed tailed bijuu let out another terrifying roar, an Anbu wearing a bear mask who was leading the defense against the Kyuubi quickly ordered the medic-nins to take the injured away from the battle. When the last wounded ninja was brought to safety, the Anbu paused for a moment to look at his surroundings and take stock of the situation.

No matter where he looked, he saw the bodies of his fallen comrades strewn all over the battlefield.

The battle was going terribly bad for them.

They had suffered heavy casualties and had been unable to inflict any injury on the beast. Every known strategy and jutsu that they had used did little to tip the battle in their favor. Even the fortifications [1] that had been hastily built had proved to be useless as the Kyuubi had simply smashed them aside with one of its tails or claws. Still, their efforts had not been in vain for while they couldn't defeat the bijuu, they had been successful in delaying it from reaching the village and buying the time needed for the Hokage to devise a solution to defeat the demon fox.

Seeing that the Kyuubi was once more on the move, the Anbu rallied the remaining shinobis that were still capable of fighting.

"Stand fast!" he shouted as they prepared themselves for another attack on the Kyuubi. "We will defend the village with our lives!"

They had been fighting the bijuu for hours now and were all exhausted. Morale among the shinobis was low and with Jiraiya no longer here to support them, any further engagement with the Kyuubi seemed to be futile. Yet, he knew that every one of them would remain steadfast and would defend the village to the very end.

As they attack the Kyuubi once more, the Anbu mentally prayed that the Yondaime has been successful in his attempt to find a way to defeat the bijuu.

* * *

-Elsewhere-

While the Konoha ninjas fought a desperate battle, the fourth Hokage was in his office, going through the plan he had came up with in his head.

Both Jiraiya and Hiruzen Sarutobi were also in the office, looking at him with sadness on their faces.

After several hours of research and arduous work, Minato had been able to create a seal that could be used to seal the Kyuubi. He had immediately summoned his sensei and the Sandaime to the office to inspect the seal [2] and after several minutes of inspection, both had agreed that the seal should be able to work. However, both noted that there were two problems with Minato's plan. The first problem was that an infant was needed to be used as a container for the Kyuubi to be sealed into. For this, Minato had decided that he would use his newly born child as the container. He had felt a great sense of despair when he thought about it, knowing full well that he was about to place a heavy burden on his child but he did not see any other choice. He could not bear to drag someone else's child into this. The second problem was that the sealing would cost the Yondaime's life in the process. While the young Hokage did not have any problems with sacrificing himself for the village, it was his family that he was worried about.

How would the people of Konoha view his family especially his child?

For this Minato did not have an answer to and decided that he was going to have to put his trust in the village.

It was then that the three had received news that Minato's wife, Kushina had born him a pair of twins.

Because of this, Minato was currently struggling to decide which of his two children he was going to use to seal the demon fox into. It took him a couple of minutes before he finally decided that he would seal the Kyuubi into his daughter Natsuki.

"Are you absolutely sure about this Minato?" the Sandaime asked. The aged shinobi had been arguing with the Yondaime to let someone else [3] to do the sealing instead for the past few minutes.

"You are young and have a family to take care of. You don't really have to do this."

The fourth Hokage shook his head, determined to carry out his plan. He raised his hand before Sarutobi could speak any further, gesturing to the aged shinobi that he had already made up his mind and there was nothing the third Hokage could do to change it. Realizing that the Yondaime wasn't going to listen to any of his arguments, Sarutobi sighed and nod his head in defeat. Minato gave a sad smile. "I don't like this Sarutobi but it is my duty as Hokage. It is only right that I am the one to do this."

He then clapsed Sarutobi's arm.

"Sarutobi, I want to thank you for everything you've done to help me. It has also been an honour to have served under you," he said in a respectful tone before leaving the office for the hospital where his wife and two children were with a heavy heart.

Jiraiya followed his student but stopped to look at third Hokage.

"Don't worry about me Jiraiya, I'll be fine. Right now, Minato needs someone to support him more than ever."

Jiraiya nodded and went to catch up with Minato.

Seeing that there was no one left in the office, the Sandaime turned to look out at the village from the window of the office. He could see the Kyuubi from here; the massive beast was drawing closer to the village with every passing minute.

The sounds of explosions, shouting and fighting could be easily heard from where he stood.

"You don't have to hide anymore my friend," Sarutobi said without turning away from the sight.

From a dark corner of the office, a brown-haired figure of average height emerged. "It's been a while since we've last met Sarutobi," the mysterious stranger said as he walked towards the aged shinobi.

"Yes, it has indeed been a while," Sarutobi replied before turning to face the stranger. "And it's good to see that you're fine Takito. I'm sorry to have asked you to come all the way here."

Mirikatoji Takito waved his hand dismissively as he stood next to the Sandaime to look at the Kyuubi. "There is no need to be sorry. As a friend, I am always willing to help you. Besides, it wasn't much of a trouble to come here." With the Konoha ninjas' attention fixed on the bijuu, it didn't take much of an effort for him to enter the village undetected. Sarutobi nodded, feeling guilty that he was about to entrust his friend with a huge responsibility.

"Takito, I have two important favors to ask from you," the Sandaime stated with a weary voice. "I am planning to replace Minato for the sealing so I need you to help protect me during the sealing." Seeing that his friend was waiting for an explanation, the aged shinobi continued. "I know that Minato said that he would be the one to perform the sealing but I have already made up my mind. I am old, Takito and I have only a few more years left in me. Minato on the other hand has a family to take care of and a future ahead of him. He doesn't have to sacrifice his life today."

Takito nodded his head although the third Hokage could tell that his friend wasn't exactly pleased with his decision. "As for my second favor …" the old man sighed. "Takito, I want you to look after Minato's son Naruto for me."

There was a long silent moment before the ninja finally spoke. "Why?"

Sarutobi took a deep breath before explaining.

"Just a few days ago, I've had a strange dream. I had a dream of a great war that will engulf the entire Elemental Countries. This war will take place years from now and will determine the fate of the continent and everyone in it. And in my dream … I saw a young shinobi in the midst of the war who looked almost like Minato himself. At first, I thought that it was only a dream. But then, I started to have the same dream every night since then until today. After giving some thought about it, I believed that the young shinobi is none other than Minato's son Naruto and that his choices will affect the outcome of the war."

Takito frowned at the third Hokage's words but decided to continue listening.

"Takito, I won't be alive by tonight so I won't be able to watch over Naruto. My friend, I want you to promise me that you will look after Naruto and ensure that the boy will grow up to become a fine shinobi. I know that you dislike Konoha for several reasons … which I can understand but I need you to do this for me."

Takito closed his eyes, deep in thought for a while before he came to a decision.

"Very well. I may not like this Sarutobi but I promise you that I will look after the boy."

Sarutobi gave a sad smile. "Thank you my friend."

The Sandaime then took one last look around the office, remembering his days as Hokage. Now that his worries had been put to rest, there was only one thing left to do.

"Are you ready Takito?" he asked.

Takito nodded his head solemnly in reply and the Sandaime disappeared in swirl of leaves while the other did so in a black mist.

* * *

-Konoha Hospital-

**Roooaaarrrrr!**

'Argh, won't that damned beast just shut up!' Tsunade thought as the two newborn children started crying.

She could easily hear the beast roaring from here, which meant that the Kyuubi should have already reached the gates of the village.

The sannin was in charge of watching over Minato's wife, Kushina who was feeling weak after giving birth to her children. The hospital staff and medic-nins were too busy treating the wounded civilians an ninjas that were filling the hospital at an increasing rate. Due to the lack of space, every room in the hospital had to accommodate at least several people. Throughout the entire hospital, one would be assaulted by the stench of blood and would only be able to hear the moans and painful screams of the wounded. Only the room which Kushina and Tsunade were currently in remained an exception.

"Shhh, everything is going to be okay. Daddy is going to stop the beast from hurting us, Naruto, Natsuki," Kushina said as she comforted her babies in her arms.

Tsunade was quiet as her friend sang a lullaby for the two babies who stopped crying. Naruto and Natsuki looked exactly like their father and mother respectively. Their names were something that Minato and Kushina had agreed on depending on the gender of their newly born child. No one had ever expected that the couple were going to have a pair of twins.

Hearing the sound of footsteps behind her, she turned to see both Minato and Jiraiya entering the room. Judging from the grim look on their faces, she knew that things weren't looking good.

As Jiraiya went to stand next to Tsunade, Minato walked over to his wife and newborn children.

His steps felt heavy as though his legs were chained to a metal ball. Forcing himself to smile, he spoke. "Hello Kushina, how are you and the children doing?"

Kushina gave a weak smile in return. "I'm feeling weak but Tsunade here says that I'm just tired. Naruto and Natsuki here are fine."

"Good … good …" Minato muttered before looking at his children.

The sight of both Naruto and Natsuki in his wife's arms brought a smile to his face as he saw how alike his children looked to both him and Kushina. For a moment, all his troubles were washed away with the thought of his family being the only thing in his head. Then, his smile was gone as he remembered the reason for coming here and was brought back to reality.

Knowing that he was about to reveal the bad news, he struggled to find the right words.

"Kushina … there's something that I need to tell you." Seeing his wife looked at him worriedly, he continued. "I've found a way to stop the Kyuubi but …"

"But what Minato? What's wrong?"

Taking a deep breath, he began explaining his plan to Kushina whose eyes widened in panic. "No. Please you can't do this. I'm begging you, not after everything that we've went through."

"Please Kushina, I need to do this. There isn't any other way," Minato said, his voice trembling as he struggled to hold back his feelings.

He tried to take Natsuki which only served to make her more hysterical. "No! I won't let you have her! Anything but our children!" she screamed, pulling her children closer to her chest. "Then what do you want me to do!" Minato shouted in frustration. "If there was any other way, I would have chosen it! There's just no other way Kushina. And if I don't do this, the damned Kyuubi is going to destroy the entire village," he said as tears streamed down his face. Minutes later, Minato came out of the room, holding Natsuki gently in his arms with Jiraiya behind him. He looked as though he had aged several years. Back in the room, Tsunade was doing her best to comfort the tearful Kushina. As Jiraiya and Minato walked out of the hospital, the Yondaime spoke. "Sensei … am I doing the right thing?"

Jiraiya was quiet for a few seconds before he replied. "I don't know if you're doing the right thing Minato but I know that you're doing the best you can for the village."

"Thanks sensei," Minato replied.

"Minato, do you need me to help you out with the Kyuubi? Jiraiya asked. Minato shook his head. "No sensei, I can do this. Kushina needs your help more than I do. Goodbye sensei." The Yondaime then began running towards the Kyuubi, leaving behind the toad sannin who stood watching his student leave. "Goodbye Minato. I wish you the best of luck," Jiraiya muttered before heading back into the hospital to help Tsunade comfort Kushina.

He failed to notice the two figures that had begun to follow his student.

* * *

-Battlefield-

Upon reaching the battlefield, the Yondaime was greeted by Bear who was clutching his wounded arm.

"Hokage-sama!" Bear stated as he proceeded to kneel before the Hokage buy was stopped by the Yondaime. "Bear, how is everyone doing?" Minato asked just as the Kyuubi let out another roar. "Terrible Hokage-sama. Our attacks were unable to hurt the bloody beast and only serve to annoy it. Most of the ninjas are tired their spirits are low but we can still continue fighting Hokage-sama."

Minato nodded his head in understanding. "I understand Bear. You and the others have done more than I could ever ask for. I have a plan to defeat the beast and I need you to pull all of our forces back."

"Hai." Bear gave a salute before jumping off to inform the other ninjas of the Yondaime's order.

Seeing that he was alone once more, Minato was about to summon Gamabunta when a voice called out to him from behind. Turning his head, he was surprised to see that it was the Sandaime in shinobi gear approaching him.

"Sarutobi, what are you doing here?"

He failed to notice Takito who sneaked up from behind and delivered a quick chop to his neck. [4]

Takito then caught the unconscious Yondaime and took Natsuki from his hands.

"Forgive me Minato but I cannot allow you to sacrifice your life tonight," Sarutobi said as his friend dropped the fourth Hokage onto the ground.

The Sandaime then summoned Enma the Monkey King who appeared in a puff of white smoke.

"Sarutobi, what's going on? Why is the Yondaime unconscious on the ground? And why do I sense the Kyuubi nearby?" Enma asked, concerned by the look on Sarutobi's face.

"I'm sorry Enma but I need you to help me to distract the Kyuubi while I attempt to seal it away. There isn't much time so I'll explain everything to you on the way," Sarutobi said as he took the baby from Takito.

With that, the three immediately headed in the direction of the Kyuubi.

As they got closer to their destination, Sarutobi was filled with grief when he was borne witness to a scene he had often seen in the previous wars. A number of the civilians had been caught in the battle when the Kyuubi had reached the village. Many of them were wounded, their clothes ripped to shreds with various wounds all over their bodies as they struggled to get to safety. Some just remained where they were, clutching their dead relatives and friends, oblivious to everything around them. Natsuki began to cry loudly as she felt the Kyuubi's chakra and Sarutobi wanted to comfort her but knew he had to concentrate on the coming battle. By the time he had finished explaining everything to Enma, the three had reached the area where the Kyuubi was.

"Alright Sarutobi, I won't last long against the Kyuubi but I'll try my best," Enma said before charging at the demon fox. After gaining the Kyuubi's attention, he began jumping around, avoiding every attack by the bijuu and striking back whenever there was an opening to keep it focused on him. Seeing that the Kyuubi was now occupied with Enma, Sarutobi placed Natsuki on the ground and began drawing the seal designed by Minato on Natsuki's stomach. He concentrated on drawing the seal, ignoring everything around as the slightest mistake in drawing the seal would spell doom for the entire village. But as the Sandaime went into the final phase, the Kyuubi suddenly lost interest in fighting Enma as though it had sensed something that could threaten it. [5] Looking around, the Kyuubi spotted the two ninjas and straightaway realized what was going on.

Ignoring Enma's attacks, the Kyuubi gathered its chakra into a large ball of energy and launched it at them.

Immediately, Takito placed his hands onto the ground and the shadows around him gathered to form a massive thick wall. Upon contact, the wall was instantly vaporized by the sheer power of the attack but both ninjas remained unharmed.

Quickly, the Kyuubi prepared to launch another energy ball, this one even larger than before but was disrupted by Enma who in a desperate attempt smacked the fox's head with his staff. "Sarutobi! Hurry up! I can't hold it much longer!" Enma shouted before he was knocked aside by one of the bijuu's tails and was dispelled. The battle had been decided however as Sarutobi had finished drawing the seal and was flashing through the required handsigns. As the last handsign was completed, a bright flash of light occurred. Everyone in the area was blinded for a moment and all they could hear was the loud and terrifying roar of the Kyuubi.

When the light was gone, Takito saw that the Kyuubi was gone. He turned to look at Sarutobi, only to find that the aged shinobi had collapsed onto the ground and rushed to kneel beside him. "Sarutobi! Can you hear me? Say something for Kami's sake!" he said as he held the dying shinobi in his arms. Sarutobi opened his eyes weakly to see his friend.

"Takito … is that you?" he muttered.

"Yes."

"Is it over?"

Taking a careful look around, Takito was sure that the nine-tailed bijuu was no longer around. Natsuki was crying and he could sense another set of chakra in her which he instantly recognized it as the Kyuubi's. "The demon is sealed Sarutobi, you've done it." Takito answered as he turned to look back at the Sandaime. Sarutobi smiled warmly as he closed his eyes. "Good … Takito, remember the promise you gave me."

"I have not forgotten about it. You can rest now my friend."

"Thank you," the aged shinobi muttered before turning to look up at the sky. "My sons … forgive me for this … Biwako … I'm coming."

He drew one last breath before going limp in Takito's arms.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage of Konoha, known by many as the God of the Shinobi and The Professor have passed away.

Laying Sarutobi to the ground, Takito remained in his position, staring at the man whom he considered to be his closest friend. The sounds of thunder rang and soon, it started raining. It seemed as though the heavens too were mourning the passing of a great man. Finally, Takito stood up as he sensed several presences approaching his location. When Minato and the other Konoha ninjas reached the place where the Kyuubi once was, they saw the third Hokage lying on the ground with Natsuki beside him. Minato went over to check his daughter. Seeing that his daughter was alright and the seal was working fine, he walked over to the Sandaime's body with Natsuki in his arms.

'He wanted me to have the chance to raise my kids.' Minato thought sadly as he looked at the deceased Sandaime. He should have known that the Sandaime wanted to replace him for the sealing. Why else would the aged shinobi try to persuade him from performing the sealing then? As he calmed his daughter, he promised himself that he would do his best to make the Sandaime's dreams of peace throughout the Elemental Countries a reality. It was the least he could do for the third Hokage who had done so much for everyone in the village and had made the ultimate sacrifice just for him to have a chance to raise his family.

An Anbu wearing a dog mask came and interrupted his thoughts.

"Hokage-sama, the Kyuubi is nowhere to be seen. What are your orders?"

"I see …" Minato said. "Dog, I want you to organize several parties to search for any unfortunate victims caught in the Kyuubi's attack. I also want the Sandaime's body to be brought back immediately," he told Dog who nodded solemnly before jumping away.

Turning to look at Natsuki, he smiled. "Natsuki, let's go back home."

He then began to walk back to the hospital where his wife and son awaited him.

It may have been a victory for the forces of Konoha but a costly one. Too many lives had been lost today for anyone to be happy.

* * *

-Hours later-

Takito sat on the ruins of one of the many destroyed buildings, watching the people of Konoha cheer for the Yondaime and his family from afar.

After the successful sealing of the nine-tailed bijuu, he had proceeded to secretly aid the Konoha shinobis to search for survivors of the aftermath.

A massive funeral was then held for the lives lost in the invasion but he chose not to attend as he didn't like the large crowds of people.

Then, the time came for the Hokage to reveal his daughter's burden.

Much to his surprise, the people didn't think of Natsuki as a demon but rather as a heroine of the village. Considering his experiences with jinchurikis, he had expected the former to happen. Was this why Sarutobi had always asked him to give the village a second chance? That the people of Konoha still had some good in themselves? Then again, Natsuki was the Yondaime's daughter and therefore someone of importance.

Deciding that he had seen enough, the ninja jumped down from the ruins into a dark alley.

Making sure that nobody had noticed him, he quietly left the area and headed straight to the place where the funeral had taken place. Seeing that there were a few people about, he used a genjutsu to change his looks [6] and walked up to the coffin which held the deceased Sandaime. Takito stood at the coffin, staring at the man whom he had trusted and fought side by side with for years, ignoring the fact that he was soaked wet and that the weather had become cold. An hour or so passed before he left the place to search for a hotel or inn in the village that had survived the destruction. Konoha had been greatly weakened by the attack and there was no doubt that its enemies would take advantage of this. The Hidden Leaf Village would definitely be busy in its recovery from tomorrow onwards.

His thoughts then wandered to the promise he had made to his friend.

What was his friend thinking?

Surely the boy Naruto would grow up to become a fine shinobi under the guidance of his own parents?

Had the third Hokage foreseen something he did not?

And why him of all people? Considering his ugly past with this village, he should have been the last person to be chosen for this task.

He had wanted to question the old man's decision back at the office, even refuse the Sandaime but for some unexplainable reason had held himself from doing so. To be honest, Takito was tempted to leave Konoha for good and never return at all. Nevertheless, he had made a promise and he intends to keep it. This meant however that he was going to have to stay in the village in order to watch over the Yondaime's son. Furthermore, he was going to have to set up a place to stay om the village and create a new identity so that the villagers wouldn't recognize him.

That however was something that he would think of tomorrow as he was feeling tired.

As he continued to search for a place to rest, little did Takito realized that he would be playing a crucial role in determining the fate of the Elemental Countries and those within it.

* * *

-Explanations-

[1] - In this story, Konoha had gotten news of the Kyuubi a day or two from its arrival. Being confident after having won the recent war and with little experience on how to handle a bijuu invasion, some of the Konoha ninjas decided to use their experiences from the third war to build simple fortifications in hopes of providing some cover to themselves. This include simple barriers, covers and shelters located away from the expected battlefield for the ninjas to retreat temporary during the battle.

[2] - In this story, the Kyuubi has never been sealed before. Even though Minato may be a fuinjutsu master, it is his first attempt in sealing a bijuu. Adding the fact that the Kyuubi is the most powerful bijuu of the nine, it would be safe and sensible for him to consult with the other fuinjutsu masters about his seal. After all, if the seal fails to seal the Kyuubi into Natsuki, Konoha is practically screwed as the Kyuubi won't give a second chance for Minato to seal it again.

[3] - Sarutobi attempted to persuade Minato to let someone else to do the sealing first so that he wouldn't need Takito to come in and knock the Yondaime unconscious or help protect him during the sealing as other Konoha ninjas can do that. Sarutobi knew that he cannot ask the other Konoha ninjas to do so (the knocking unconscious and protect him) if Minato disagreed as there is a chance that they would obey the fourth Hokage and refuse instead. Sarutobi also knew that if he called Takito to help with this, there was a risk that his friend might get discovered by the village.

If Minato had agreed, Sarutobi would only tell Takito about his second favor. Sarutobi said 'someone else' instead of 'him' because if he asked Minato to let him to do the sacrifice, both Minato and Jiraiya wouldn't allow that considering that they respected him and everything he's done for Konoha as the third Hokage. Sarutobi was planning to take the opportunity and perform the sealing himself when the moment is right if Minato had agreed.

[4] - Some of you readers might be wondering why Minato was unable to sense Takito considering that he is one of the most powerful ninjas. First, he was tired from working for hours researching and was depressed by the incident at the hospital and as a result, his senses are affected. Second, he was surprised by Sarutobi's presence and was distracted. Lastly, Takito is no average ninja.

[5] - In the old fanfic, the Kyuubi immediately realizes what was going on despite being distracted by Enma. Thus, I decided to make a slight change in this fanfic. Although the Kyuubi was distracted by Enma, it was powerful enough to sense something was wrong when Sarutobi was nearly finished with the seal.

[6] - In the old fanfic, Takito went straight to the coffin, ignorant of the fact there the few people might recognize him. As such, he is now a more cautious person in this fanfic.

* * *

-Author's Note-

Well, that's it for the prologue. Those who have read the previous fanfic would probably notice that Takito is now slightly less talkative.

There wasn't really much in the prologue that I felt that I need to change.

As for the explanation section, I'm going to use it in all my fanfics to explain a certain situation that cannot be described in the story itself. This is so that I won't have to write it here in the author's note section or private message to some people every time. From now on, the author's note is going to be used for news related to updating the fanfic and anything else about it.

Anyways, the plotline is pretty much going to be the same; Naruto will defect to Kirigakure and Fem. Haku will be used for the pairing. Like I said before, the rewritten version is going to be slightly more realistic, slightly more detailed and a few changes in the characters and in certain situations. Also, I have decided to stop using italics as someone has said that he/she didn't like it. The reason why I was using it previously is because I feel comfortable when writing using italics. Strange perhaps but that was the case for me. Therefore, I have decided to use italics first and convert it all to normal when posting a chapter.

Each rewritten chapter would take a few days to finish and when I resumed from where I stopped during the previous fanfic, I will definitely try to finish it faster than the usual 2 to 3 months. I will also no longer stop if there are problems with the fanfic. From now on, I will continue straight on till the end.

Other than that, I have decided that I will divide this entire story into two or three books. While I am still unsure of how much of the story each book will have, the current fanfic will be on Naruto's training to the civil war in Kirigakure before ending after Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha.

Let's not get too ambitious after all.

Anyways, it's time for me to get started on the next chapter.

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.

Thank you for your reviews and for reading this story.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 1

-Five years later-

"Yah! Hah!" a voice cried out in the private training grounds of the Namikaze estate.

It belonged to none other than Natsuki Namikaze, container of Kyuubi, the nine-tailed bijuu and daughter of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. The five year old girl was going through the basic moves of taijutsu, kicking and punching the air as though she was fighting an invisible opponent while her parents watched her with pride.

Upon finishing the final moves, she spun around to face them.

"Kaa-chan! Tou-chan! How did I do?" she asked eagerly. Minato smiled as he and his wife rose from the marble bench they were sitting on.

"There were a few mistakes that you've made Natsuki but you're improving. If you carry on like this, you'll definitely become a great kunoichi," he said as the two adults walked towards their daughter.

"Natsuki, know that we're both very proud of you," Kushina stated before the three then embraced each other in a hug.

As the three headed back into the house to relax, Minato had an idea. "Say, why don't we all go out to have some anpan?" he suggested.

"Sure, why not?" Kushina agreed.

"Yay!" Natsuki shouted as she jumped up and down with joy, causing her parents to laugh.

It was known to everyone in the village that the red haired jinchuriki had a craving for the sweet bun filled with the red bean paste. After getting properly dressed, the three left the house and headed for the village, never realizing that they had forgotten someone else.

* * *

-Elsewhere in Konoha-

A five year old boy was sitting down by a river, looking at his reflection in the water. He had blonde spiky hair, blue eyes and whisker marks on his cheeks.

He was Naruto Namikaze, twin brother of Natsuki, son of Minato and Kushina.

Currently, the Yondaime's son was pondering about the lack of attention he had been receiving from his family for the past few months.

'This isn't fair. Why do I have to be left behind?' Naruto thought sadly. [1]

It had all started several months ago when his parents had decided to train his sister in the ninja arts. He had asked to be trained together with his sister only to be told that he would only start learning when he entered the academy at the age of nine. Although he had felt upset, Naruto knew that his parents had a valid reason for doing this. He had heard many tales about the Kyuubi's power and knew that his sister did need to learn how to control the demon fox that was sealed inside her. Besides, his parents at that time had still treated the both of them fairly as they had always done before while Natsuki never treated him any different. With that, Naruto had chose to let it go, reasoning that he could catch up with his sister once he enter the academy through hard work and determination.

However, things soon took a change as the days went by.

Just a month or two after that day, Naruto had noticed that he was beginning to receive less attention from his family than what was normal. At first, he had dismissed the thought, thinking that he was only feeling jealous of being left out and thus being paranoid. But soon, he wasn't sure any longer.

Recently, he had noticed that his parents generally tend to listen more attentively to whatever Natsuki said and would sometimes forget about him and the topic he was trying to talk to them about. He also did not recall his mother cooking his favorite food ramen nowadays and was pretty sure that his sister's favorite food anpan on the other hand was served more often than usual. His father used to occasionally bring back presents for him and his sister whenever he returned from his work but for the past few occasions, it was only his sister who had received things from his father.

As for his sister Natsuki, Naruto had noted that she was now spending less and less time with him as she was now devoting more of her time into her training. While she did apologize to him for being unable to play with him, it did little to help the fact that she too was paying less attention to him. The entire thing was depressing as it seemed that he was no longer important to his family and Naruto felt his heart ache at that thought.

As he continued to ponder about it, the blonde did not notice that he was being watched.

'Hmm, this isn't right.' Takito thought, frowning as he did so.

The shinobi was hiding among the trees not far from where the boy was, contemplating his next move as he continued to observe the Hokage's son.

After the Kyuubi invasion, Takito had spent hours thinking of how he was going to settle down in the village. With the Hidden Leaf Village being severely weakened, there had been little doubt that the Konoha ninjas would be on the lookout for any spies sent by their enemies to take advantage of the chaos and infiltrate the village.

Hoping to avoid attracting much attention to him, he had chose to set up a small medicine shop in one of the poor districts of the village. Having a fair deal of experience with poisons, making simple medicines was not much of a problem to him. To avoid being recognized, he had designed several seals on himself that would cast a genjutsu that gave him the appearances of an old man. He had also managed to come up with a convincing story for his new identity. He was Rikuto Arikato, a simple medicine maker who had traveled to Konoha with his wife Misaki to visit an old friend. However, both his wife and friend were killed in the Kyuubi's attack while he alone had survived. Unable to leave the village where his wife had died, Rikuto had chose to settle down instead.

To further reinforce his story, he had then spent the next few days after the incident 'searching' for his wife and friend throughout the entire village. [2]

His actions had been successful in dispelling any suspicion that the villagers had for him. Many of them had lost at least a friend or loved one and the thought that someone else had also suffered the same pain had replaced the former feeling with pity.

During the first year of his stay, Takito had spent most of his time watching over the Yondaime's son, making sure that boy was safe.

It had been a highly possible thought back then that the other hidden villages like Iwagakure and Kumogakure would send someone to assassinate or kidnap the Yondaime's children but so far, it had looked to be unfounded. It seemed that as long as the fourth Hokage and his wife were alive, Konoha's enemies would avoid doing anything that would incur their wrath.

As the years went on, it seemed that everything would work out the way they should and Takito had recently started to divert more of his time observing the events and political situation throughout the Elemental Countries. He had initially expected Naruto's parents to train the boy and that he would only need to make sure that the boy was safe until he became strong enough to protect himself. Unfortunately, after seeing what had transpired in the past few months, it seemed that things had become much more complicated and that he was going to have to intervene.

He can understand that Natsuki needed an early head start in order to prepare her for the burden she carried but to leave their son's training to the academy?

It would be pretty late for the boy to start training to become a shinobi at the age of nine. Sure, there were several cases that proved to be the exception but they were rare. Both Minato and Kushina as shinobis themselves should know that.

Even if they were unable to focus their attention on their son's training, the least that they could have done was to assign a jounin or chunin teach the boy.

It also seemed that Minato and Kushina were starting to favor their daughter over their son which Takito felt was wrong for it would be setting a dangerous precedent for the two children. The one ignored may bore a sense of hatred or grudge while the favored one may develop a sense of superiority over the others. After all, he had witnessed the results of such actions many times before.

One good example was Orochimaru who had developed a hunger for power and chose to betray Konoha.

He silently hoped that the same would not happen for Natsuki.

'Well, sitting around here isn't going to change anything.' Takito thought so he observed the surroundings for any nearby people.

Seeing that there was none, he deactivated the seals on himself and approached the Yondaime's son from behind. Takito knew that he was taking a big risk in revealing himself but there were numerous reasons for him to be doing this.

At the rate things were going, Naruto's future looked like it wasn't going to be a bright one. While he disliked the idea of training someone, he didn't really have much of a choice. Both Minato and Kushina looked like they aren't going to change their minds anytime soon and Takito did not trust any of the Konoha ninjas to teach the Yondaime's son properly as they were too set in their ways and might spoil the boy. [3] In fact, this may be the opportunity for him to ensure that the boy will not become so narrow minded like most of the people of Konoha and was open to things around him like the Sandaime.

Another reason for him to be doing this was the fact that there was no better chance for him to offer his help to Naruto.

Having watched Naruto all this time, Takito knew that the boy rarely ventured out of the house and only came here when he was feeling very upset. While infiltrating the Namikaze estate wasn't much of a problem to Takito, introducing himself and offering his help to the boy without being discovered was another matter. Furthermore, to have a stranger suddenly appear in your house and offer to help you would seem very suspicious.

In short, it was now or never.

* * *

-Back to Naruto-

So busy was Naruto in his thoughts that it came as a shock for him when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Whirling around, he was surprised to see a man standing behind him. The man seemed to be in his early forties, was of average height, had messy brown hair and a fairly chiseled face. But what was most intriguing about the stranger was the pair of dark purple eyes that seemed to reveal a sea of emotions. The man raised his hands in a friendly gesture. "Are you okay? I've seemed to have startled you."

"Err yeah, I'm alright," Naruto replied.

"Well then, do you mind if I sit here?" the man asked, pointing at a beside him.

"No, I'm fine with that," Naruto stated.

Giving his thanks, the man sat down next to the Yondaime's son who went back to his thoughts. The two sat by the river in silence for several minutes before the stranger suddenly spoke. "I'm sorry but I can't help but notice that you seemed to be quite upset. Did something happened to you?"

Naruto didn't know why but he felt that he could trust the stranger with his problems. "It's my parents. They're paying more attention to my sister."

"Hmm, why don't you tell me the whole story?"

Feeling the urge to express his problems to someone, Naruto decided to explain the entire situation he had with his family to the stranger. For half an hour, the man remained silent as he listened to the boy's story. When the blonde had finished explaining everything, he gave a thoughtful look. "I see, it seems to me that your parents are ignoring you in favor of your sister."

"To be honest though, I'm not really sure that I can do anything to help you with your family." [4]

"Oh," Naruto muttered while lowering his head in disappointment.

He wasn't really surprised with the man's answer though there had been a bit of hope that the man could do something to help him with his problems.

"However, I could help you train to become a ninja."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto asked, raising his head in surprise.

"Well, you can say that I'm a shinobi and that I'm more than willing to help you out. If you don't mind training under me, I can teach you the arts of the ninja."

"Really? I can train under you?" Naruto asked, his eyes now wide and filled with hope. Seeing the man nod his head, he yelled with joy. "Sure, I would like to!"

"That's good. By the way, my name if Mirikatoji Takito. What's yours?"

"Naruto Namikaze sensei," Naruto replied.

"There's no need to call me sensei, just call me by name. Before we can begin on anything however, I'm going to ask you a very important question," the stranger known as Takito said before giving a very serious look. "Do you know what a ninja is?"

"Huh?" the blonde said, surprised by the question the stranger had asked.

Now that he mentioned it, Naruto wasn't really sure that he knew anything about it. Sure, there was the fact that a large portion of the people here were ninjas and that his father was the most powerful shinobi in the village but that was it.

"Hmm …" Takito said as he observed the look on Naruto's face. "Well you're only five years old so I wasn't expecting you to know. You see Naruto, being a ninja isn't all about using big explosive jutsus, beating up the bad guys nor is it about rescuing some princess," Takito explained while Naruto listened intently.

"We ninjas are a group of spies or mercenaries that are supposed to get missions assigned to us done no matter how dangerous they are. Usually the missions involve spying, sabotaging, assassinating, and sometimes kidnapping. Being a ninja doesn't mean that what we are doing is good. Most of the missions we do serve only to profit a few while others suffer in the process. We may not like the joy but once taken, we will do it for that's who we are. As ninjas, we don't get many friend. Feared and hated by many, we have few whom we can actually trust. Your friend today could become your enemy tomorrow."

Naruto stared at Takito in awe. He never thought that being a ninja meant doing all those things that the man had just mentioned and realized that it was nothing to what the villagers had told him. His thoughts then went to that of his parents. If what Takito said was true … what does that make his parents? Had they been harming other people [5] in the missions they did all this time?

"Usually, we ninjas would have to work as a team in the mission we're assigned to. It's time like this that the lives of your comrades are in your hands. Even the slightest mistake you make can jeopardize the entire mission and worse, endanger the lives of your teammates. And even when nothing goes wrong, we could still end up losing the lives of those whom we care about."

There was a moment of silence and Naruto realized that the man must have lost a few people that were important to him.

The boy kept quiet, not knowing what to say as he didn't know anything about losing someone important.

"Naruto, the reason I'm telling you this is so that you wouldn't make the same mistake as most kids do. A lot of kids eagerly train to become ninjas, only to see the true reality of things. They then start questioning themselves and are no longer certain of themselves. Being doubtful of yourself as a shinobi will cost you your life. But more importantly, I want you to understand that choosing to become a ninja is not a decision to be lightly made. It's hard to return back to an ordinary life once you've taken this path for you will always have to be wary of everything around you. If you are definitely sure that this is the path you want to take, come back here and you will find me waiting for you. From there, you can begin your training under me."

Finished, the man stood up and began walking away, he took several steps before turning to look back at Naruto.

"By the way, it would be best if no one knew about me and the training I'm offering you," he said.

"Why not?" Naruto questioned.

"I will explain everything in due time if you ever choose to become a ninja. For now, let's just say that the village wouldn't agree to me training you," he said before fading away into the trees.

As the stranger disappeared, Naruto remained where he was, thinking about everything that Takito had just told him.

An hour or so passed before the boy returned home deep in his thoughts.

* * *

-Namikaze Estate-

It was late in the evening in Konoha as the sun slowly faded away from the horizon.

The Namikaze family were seated at the dining table eating their dinner. It was during this that Kushina noticed something odd about her son Naruto. It wasn't that her son was quiet; Naruto was always a quiet one and seldom talked even during a party. No, it was that the boy had barely touched his bowl of udon noodles which was unusual as her son would have already been asking for a second helping by now.

Instead, he was staring at his food looking as though he was deep in thought.

"Hey brother, why haven't you eaten your noodles?" Natsuki asked. [6] Apparently, it wasn't just her who had noticed Naruto's odd behaviour.

"Hmm?" Naruto was brought out of his thoughts as he looked at his sister. "Oh I'm fine …"

"Naruto, are you okay?" Minato asked with a concern tone. "You seemed to be feeling down."

"It's nothing Tou-chan. I was only thinking about something," Naruto said.

Kushina wondered whether her son was feeling disappointed about the training that Natsuki was having. It was something that she and her husband had been discussing for weeks after their children's fifth birthday. Both of them knew that it wasn't right to not include their son in the training but it was crucial that Natsuki learned to control the Kyuubi as soon as possible.

Once they are sure that Natsuki was able to control the bijuu, they would include Naruto into the training and divert more of their time with him.

Still, perhaps it would be best for her to ask her son about it. "Naruto, why don't you tell me what's on your mind?" she asked in a gentle voice.

"Yeah son, we're here to help you if you're having any problems," Minato stated.

Naruto was quiet as his family looked at him, waiting for his reply.

"I was wondering ... why did Tou-chan and Kaa-chan chose to become ninjas?" he asked, surprising both his parents. [7] The two had not expected their son to ask such a question. But before they could respond, Natsuki spoke. "Isn't it simple? Ninjas are cool and get to beat up the bad guys!"

"Actually Natsuki, that isn't true," Kushina said to her daughter who gave a perplexed look.

"Huh? Then why did Tou-chan and Kaa-chan chose to become ninjas?" she asked.

"Well, you see Natsuki, Naruto," Kushina said at her daughter before turning to look at her son. "Both your father and I have many people who are important to us like the two of you. By being ninjas, we can protect them from those who want to hurt them."

"We also wanted to become ninjas to protect Konoha which is our home. As the Hokage, it is my duty to ensure that Konoha and its people are safe from harm and is prosperous," Minato explained.

Natsuki had an 'oh' expression while Naruto remained silent as both children looked at their parents.

"So Naruto, does that answer your question?" Kushina asked.

"Yeah, I guess so …" Naruto mumbled.

"That's good to know. So Naruto, what caused you to ask that question?" Minato said. Both adults were curious to know how their son had came up with that question. Remembering what Takito had told him, Naruto quickly thought of an excuse. "I-I've just been thinking about being a ninja when it came into my mind," he quickly said.

Kushina smiled warmly at her son's reply.

"Don't worry Naruto, you'll get to train to become a ninja when you enter the academy. Now go and eat your food before it gets cold."

"Yes Kaa-chan," Naruto said as he began to dig into his noodles.

Although his parents had given an answer, there was something about it that didn't make sense. New questions were now appearing in his mind but he did not dare to ask anymore as he didn't want his parents to ask him more questions. The last thing he wanted was to ruin the chance for him to actually receive some training in the arts of the shinobi.

As he chewed on his food, Naruto decided that he was going to have to think through everything he had learnt today on his own for tonight.

* * *

-The next day-

It was eight in the morning when Naruto woke up.

His father had already left the house to attend his duties as Hokage. His mother was busy teaching Natsuki the art of kenjutsu as she herself used a sword. Seeing that he was once again on his own, he went to have a light breakfast before heading to the spot where he had met Takito. When he reached the place, Naruto saw no one about so he went over to the exact same spot where he had sat yesterday and waited. A few minutes had passed when he suddenly felt that there was someone behind him.

"I see that you have come," Takito said as he walked and stood beside the Hokage's son. "I'm assuming that you've made up your mind?"

"Yeah," Naruto muttered.

"Do you have any reason for your choice?" [8]

A moment passed before Naruto finally answered. "I want to be a shinobi because I want to protect those who are important to me."

"And do you have anyone who is important to you?"

"Yes, Takito-sama. They're Tou-chan, Kaa-chan and my sister Natsuki. They're my family and because of that, they're important to me."

"I sensed some hesitation in your words. Is there something wrong?"

"I don't know … it's just that …"

"That what?" Takito pressed, seeing the uncomfortable look on Naruto's face.

"It's about what you said to me yesterday Takito-sama," Naruto confessed. "Everything that you told me about being a ninja, about what ninjas do … how does that have anything to do with protecting those who are important to me? And yet, my parents say that they chose to become ninjas for that reason. If that is so, how does doing things like assassinating and kidnapping have anything to do with protecting those who are important to them?"

"I see …" Takito said as he closed his eyes. "I understand your problem Naruto. You are still young and there are many things in the world that you have yet to understand. But I will help you and in due time, you will come to understand how everything works in life."

"Now …" Takito said. "I believe that it's time for me to start training you in the arts of the shinobi. Are you really sure about your decision? I'm going to have to warn you; the road to becoming a shinobi is full of challenges and danger and you will be tempted many times to give up."

Naruto stared directly into Takito's eyes and gave him a determined look.

"Yes Takito-sama, I'm ready. I promise you that I'll be the greatest ninja that you'll ever know."

"We will see about that. Now, follow me; we have much to do."

* * *

-Explanation-

[1] - What I meant by left behind is why is Naruto being left out of training and most of the attention by his family. Naruto doesn't know that his family had left for some anpan without him.

[2] - Some of you readers might say, "Wait a second. Isn't Takito trying to avoid gaining attention like previously mentioned?" Initially, Takito was pretending to search for the bodies of his wife and friend in his disguise after the Kyuubi's invasion in order to look like one of the many victims who had yet to discover some of their missing friends and relatives. He isn't worried about the fact that the bodies may not be discovered as due to his experiences with bijuus and jinchurikis, Takito knows that some of the bodies might be completely destroyed or can never be recovered.

As for the medicine shop part, Takito had already established his identity in the village and now is trying to avoid attention by being in the poor districts where there is a lower volume of people visiting his shop and a lower chance that someone important might come to his shop.

[3] - Once more, you guys might say, "Hey, didn't Takito previously say that the least Naruto's parents could do was to get a chunin or jounin to teach Naruto?" What Takito was trying to say here was that he was criticizing Minato and Kushina for not doing anything to train the boy. However, even if the two adults did send a chunin or jounin, Takito was skeptical of the person's ability to teach Naruto without spoiling the boy or teaching him the wrong set of values in Takito's perspective. This is due to Takito having a very low opinion of Konoha with the exception of a few people.

[4] - Takito wasn't really interested in helping Naruto out with his family problem as he wasn't really close to the boy and figured that the problem would solve itself sooner or later. Only if it gets worse would he then interfere in that matter. At that time, he was more focused on trying to offer his help to Naruto.

[5] - Like any other kid, Naruto has a very high opinion of his parents. The thought of his parents doing what Takito had said that ninjas do make him question everything he knows about his parents.

[6] - Does anyone know how the japanese word for twin brother? Or is Natsuki calling Naruto brother in japanese good enough? And also a fun fact is that I was trying to decide what food to use for this part when I happened to decide that I would have some instant udon noodles for supper. XD

[7] - Naruto is wondering why anyone would want to become a ninja if it meant doing all those things that Takito had told him.

[8] - Takito is asking this because it would further reveal what kind of mindset Naruto has. Depending on the answer Naruto gives, Takito might make a few plans for his training to change Naruto's perspective of things. For example, if Naruto decided to become a shinobi in order to destroy his sister XD, Takito would plan a few lessons to teach the boy that revenge or hatred isn't something he should be holding.

* * *

-Auhtor's Note-

Chapter 1 is now complete.

For those who had previously read the old fanfic, you had probably noticed that there had been a few slight changes made to how Takito tries to offer his help to Naruto. In this fanfic, Takito doesn't really care much about Naruto except that the Yondaime's son grows up to become a great ninja and is on the right track. Only as he continues to train the boy does he start to get closer to Naruto.

Honestly, it was a bit risky to change some stuff in this chapter as it might completely complicated things in the future.

Now, another thing I'm going to inform my readers especially those who had read the old fanfic is that I'm resetting the entire background story for Takito. In other words, his past can be anything and it's up to you readers to decide for yourself based on the hints given in this fanfic.

Time to get on with chapter 2.

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.

Thank you for your reviews and for reading this story.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 2

-The first year of training-

Ever since Naruto had chosen to train under the mysterious shinobi, life for the five year old boy had undergone several changes.

Unlike his sister, his training did not have a constant timetable. Where Natsuki would train on weekdays and rest on weekends, in Naruto's case, four days out of the week were randomly chosen each week [1] where he would practice the arts of the shinobi. On any of those days, the blonde would wake up at 7.00 am, get dressed and have a light breakfast before quietly leaving for a certain secluded area he had been to do for his training, making sure to use a different route to get there from time to time as instructed by his sensei. To the boy, the training area was nothing more than a large clearing in the forest located in the outskirts of the village.

What he didn't know was that the place had once served as a meeting place for the third Hokage and certain individuals to discuss certain important matters regarding the Elemental Countries in private. [2] To preserve the secrecy of the place, several advanced seals were placed around the area, concealing it from view and keeping any noise made within the area itself. Anyone who approached the place would be struck by a powerful genjutsu that would mislead them away from the area. The genjutsu had been reinforced to the point where neither the byakugan nor the sharigan was able to penetrate it. Only the Sandaime and a select few could decide who could enter the place without being affected by the seals.

Until now, no one else had ever learned of the place's existence, making it the ideal location for Naruto to train in secret.

The Hokage's son would reach the place around 8.00 am where he would find his sensei already waiting for him.

There, he would being his training with physical exercises that were meant to build one's stamina. The exercises were tough and would leave him exhausted by the time they were over. After having a short break, he would continue his training with basic taijutsu and weapons handling (kunai & shuriken) lessons that would last until the middle of the day. From there, Naruto would return home to have his lunch and a rest.

At 2.00 pm, he would return back to the training grounds where Takito would then teach him the other shinobi arts which varied from week to week. The lessons were mostly theoretical, involving the explanation of the concepts and basics of a specific art or skill that was being taught for that week. At 5.30 pm, Naruto's training would end with his sensei going through with him everything that he had been taught for the day before he was allowed to return home to have dinner with his family. If the day happened to be the last day of his training for the week, his sensei would inform him of the new timetable for the next week.

On the days where he did not have his lessons, things progressed differently.

With the entire day to himself, Naruto would either take a walk around the village or would follow his family to visit the village and the other clans, something that Takito had been constantly encouraging him to do though he did not say why. Otherwise, he would be practicing chakra spinning, an exercise that his sensei had taught him during the first few days of his training.

According to the shinobi, everyone possessed different amounts of chakra in their body. However, no matter how much chakra one had, it was of little use if one did not have good chakra control. Without the proper chakra control, a ninja couldn't execute any jutsus or techniques effectively especially if they required a precise amount of chakra. Even if he or she had managed to execute it without any problem, there was a high possibility that a notable amount of chakra would be wasted in the process. This was something one could not afford to do on the battlefield which is why it was crucial that Naruto attempt to build up his chakra reserves and practice his chakra control as early as possible. Which lead his sensei to teach him chakra spinning.

Chakra spinning was nothing more than spinning one's chakra in a tight spiral which could be easily done by channeling one's chakra around his or her fingers. While the exercise was simple and effective in improving one's chakra reserves and control, it required a lot of time and patience. Only through a long and constant effort could the desired results be achieved and it was due to this that the exercise was rarely practiced among the ninjas these days. Naruto however was an exception as he was young and any other chakra exercises were unsuitable for one of his age. This, added with the fact that he had plenty of spare time to practice it made chakra spinning to be the perfect exercise for the boy to work on his chakra control.

Whenever he was alone in the house, the blonde would practice chakra spinning in the private training grounds, otherwise he would do so in his room.

By the end of each day, the Yondaime's son would retire to his bed feeling tired but satisfied nonetheless. While he would have preferred to train under his parents, [3] he did enjoy his lessons under the mysterious shinobi. Takito may be strict and aloof at times but he was without doubt a good teacher; the man was always patient when it came to answering his questions and would spent a lot of time to ensure that he understood every topic thoroughly or to correct his mistakes.

The training had been taxing for both his mind and body as he had never been subjected to so much work before but he was slowly getting used to it.

He had no doubt that he was improving and would catch up with his sister soon enough despite her having a large head start [4] and a day of training more than him.

It was only a beginning, but an important one he felt.

* * *

-One evening-

"Naruto, we ninjas are masters of stealth and deception. Where others rely on skill or brute force, we use our head. Where others fight head on, we strike the enemy where he is vunerable. We will always seek to deprive the enemy of the initiative and superiority before making our move. If he is well rested, we wear him down. If he is strong, we feign weakness so that he would underestimate us. As a ninja, we must always plan ahead and know how to act accordingly to the situation. Leave no detail unaccounted for, no possible scenario unconsidered. Be prepared for any danger at all times. Security is nothing more than an illusion that dulls our senses and relaxes our guard until it is too late. Remember this well for it will play a great role in the future."

"Hai Takito-sama," Naruto said in reply.

Seeing that his student seemed to be understanding the lesson so far, Takito chose to continue on. "Alright, we're going to learn something very important for the next two weeks so pay attention. Now, there are many things that make a ninja powerful and feared by others. But if there is one thing that would stand above the rest, it is the mask he wears."

"Mask? You mean like that disguise you always wear in front of everyone else Takito-sama?" Naruto asked, having witnessed his sensei changed his appearances to an old man in a split second several times before. It was something that the boy found to be amazing.

Takito shook his head. "No, I do not mean a physical disguise but a mental one. The way you think, talk, act, all of that."

"You mean an actor. Like Yukie Fujikaze."

"More than that Naruto. Actors and actresses only put on a physical disguise; the way they think and react to things around them remains the same. I'm asking you to put a mask over your true self. Keep your thoughts in the background as you watch everything around you and plan your moves – all while you become an entirely different person in everyone's eyes. Cast everything that you are aside until they are nothing more than whisper in your head and replace them with the things that you want others to see or believe."

Seeing the confused expressions on his student's face, Takito chose to elaborate further.

"In war, it is not the one who is stronger but the one who knows how to outmaneuver his enemies that will claim victory. If there is anything that the past events had shown us, it is that armies and powerful men are usually brought down not by a more powerful enemy but from those who are able to utilize the tools of deception and their surroundings better than them. The same applies for us Naruto. The mask is a tool that we must use to the fullest to deceive our opponents so that we can outmaneuver them and strike when they least expect it in order to achieve victory."

"So how does wearing the 'mask' helps us to do so Takito-sama?"

The shinobi paused briefly in thought before answering.

"The mask can be used in various ways Naruto. We can use it to conceal our true abilities so that we would never be regarded as a dangerous threat. To hide our strengths and weaknesses so that they may never be used against us. To trick the enemy about our true motives and convince him into making the wrong move."

Naruto blinked his eyes several times, still unable to grasp the entire picture of what his sensei was trying to teach him. It all sounded complicated to him.

"I still don't quite understand Takito-sama," he said.

Takito gave a slow nod, taking note of the lack of confidence in his student. It was no surprise at all that the boy did not understand the topic as the art he was currently teaching was an advanced one and was also one of the hardest skills to learn. To this day, few truly understood the concepts, the importance and the risks of the art and few among that number were able to master it. If anything, he would have preferred to introduce the art to Naruto when his student was of an older age but he did not have that luxury. Naruto's training must be kept a secret from the entire village and for this to succeed, the boy must learn how to wear the mask of the innocent ordinary kid who does not have any knowledge about the ninja arts.

Both Minato and Kushina may favor their daughter but that didn't mean that they had completely forgotten about their son. Despite spending more time with Natsuki, Takito knew that the two still kept an eye on their son's well-being. So far, he had been successful in sating their curiosity by getting his student to follow his family to visit the village and the other clans or to take a walk where the villagers would see him but it was only a temporary solution. There was always a chance that they would notice their son's absence from the house and would start investigating. And even if that somehow did not happen, everyone else in the village would easily notice the change in Naruto's behaviour and growth in the next few years. [5]

Of course, he could solve this by reducing the number of lessons to keep Naruto's growth to a less suspicious level but that would mean that the boy might not be able to gain the skills and knowledge needed to survive when the time comes.

It was going to be difficult for anyone to be somewhat able to wear the mask within such a short time but if there was anyone who had a good chance of doing it, it was his student. After observing his student's performance for the past two months, it was clear that the boy possessed the same natural intelligence as his father. Lessons that would have taken any other child weeks to finish were completed by Naruto within days and if this continued on, his student would catch up with his sister in a couple of weeks. And unlike his father, the boy still kept an open mind and was prepared to see things from a different perspective which was one of the traits crucial to mastering the art.

"Don't worry Naruto, you will in time," Takito assured his student.

"Thanks Takito-sama," Naruto said, feeling less unsure of himself. "I'm guessing that you've done this before?"

"Many times Naruto … many times …"

* * *

-Five months into Naruto's training-

Of the various jutsus and skills taught in the past few months, Naruto found that he enjoyed his fuinjutsu lessons the most. His sensei had said that he had a rather systematic mind, which was probably one of the reasons why he never really had any problem in understanding the topics on fuinjutsu taught to him. While the art of sealing had been seemingly complex at first, he had later discovered that it was actually very simple in concept.

In fuinjutsu, there was a set of rules that the user must follow or risk facing dire consequences. As long as the user does so, he was granted the complete freedom to do anything he or she wanted.

This, his sensei had told him was the sole reason that separate fuinjutsu from the other jutsus as there was no limit to what the art of sealing can do. Unlike the other jutsus there were strictly confined to the ability of the human body, the capability and functions of fuinjutsu depended only on the user's creativity and his ability to bend the rules without breaking them. Fuinjutsu was without its drawbacks however; it was by far the most dangerous jutsu to practice. When it came to the art of sealing, mistakes were something that one could not afford to make.

Every single detail mattered when it came to fuinjutsu; from the amount of chakra needed to the way the seal was drawn for even the slightest change will result in the seal failing or worse. As the lessons went on, Naruto soon developed a keen interest in anything related to fuinjutsu, something which did not go unnoticed by his sensei who happened to be a fuinjutsu master himself. Seeing that his student had the aptitude for fuinjutsu, Takito had decided to divert some time of Naruto's training to fuinjutsu. He had continuously encouraged his student in his students, often giving him advice and pointers in the art of sealing. His efforts had borne fruit; the boy had soaked up every ounce of knowledge like a sponge and advanced a rate that even surprised Takito himself.

Despite the progress his student was making however, the shinobi forbade Naruto from attempting to create or design any seals on his own much to the boy's dismay. Too many ninjas had paid a heavy price in their hasty and improper attempts in the art of sealing and it would not do to have the same thing to happen to his pupil.

For now, it would be best if the boy was to work on the most basic of seals under the watchful eye of his sensei.

* * *

-Nearly one year-

"It has been nearly one year since the day you had begun your ninja training. I believe that it is time to tell you of your overall performance for this year."

Naruto nodded his head as he waited anxiously for his sensei's review.

Instead of the training grounds, both teacher and student were in a small medicine shop which happened to be his sensei's home. It was the first time he was here and the place was unlike anything that he had expected. Where the houses of those he had visited was clean and richly furnished, his sensei's home looked old and worn down though the room and furnitures were still in decent conditions. Bottles of various sizes which contained all sorts of liquids and pills were neatly arranged in a couple of shelves and cupboards. Located by the side of the entrance was a large wooden table with several compartments which Naruto assumed contained more medicine. There was another room at the corner of the far end of the room which was probably where his sensei sleeps and has his meals.

Currently, the shop was closed and his sensei was wearing his disguise.

'So this is the mask that Takito-sama wears in front of everyone else.' Naruto realized.

With the disguise, nobody would have suspected that the his sensei was actually a powerful shinobi who knew so much. The man had fooled everyone in the village into thinking that he was nothing more than a simple old man who did not pose any threat.

But why was he hiding his real identity from the rest of the village?

Naruto was unable to think any further about it as his sensei began to speak.

"If there is one thing that I can say about your training, it was that you have performed admirably well. In the beginning, you were struggling in your lessons but you were quick to adapt and was able to overcome your problems after a few days. You have shown great dedication in your work and have progressed much faster than I would have expected. What was most surprising was your progress in fuinjutsu. In all my years as a shinobi, I have not seen anyone who had advanced at a speed as fast as yours. You should be proud of yourself Naruto, you have surpassed every kid of your age in your training including your sister."

"Thank you Takito-sama," Naruto said, feeling strangely happy by his sensei's words.

Was this how Natsuki felt when she was being praised by tou-chan and kaa-chan?

"However …" Takito added. "… there is still a lot that needs to be done and the path you have taken will only get harder. What you have learnt so far is only the surface of what's to come. Furthermore, there will come a time when I cannot always be there to teach you everything Naruto. As a shinobi, you must learn how to improve and pursue your goals on your own. Only then will you be ready to take on the world as a shinobi."

"Hai Takito-sama. But how am I supposed to that?" Naruto asked.

"You do not need to worry Naruto. You will still be training under me as a shinobi, only that you'll slowly learn how rely less on me as your training continues."

The shinobi then took out a scroll from a box he had brought from the other room. Naruto noticed that there was a storage seal on it.

"Anyways, there is something that I have for you. This scroll here had several books stored in it. Some of the books contain information on the history of the major elemental nations and the past events that had taken place in them from the day they were formed till the second war. The others are old literature that dates back centuries ago. You are to study these books intently," Takito said as he handed the scroll over to Naruto.

"What if there is a word or a topic that I don't understand Takito-sama?" Naruto asked.

"It's simple. You can refer to a book called an encyclopedia if you have any trouble understanding a word or two. As for the latter, you can ask me."

"Hai Takito-sama. But is learning all these really necessary for a shinobi? How are all these supposed to aid me?" Naruto asked.

"When it comes to knowledge, it is always important to pursue it no matter who you are. Knowledge is power Naruto, and for every fact you know, you become stronger in many ways. But the most important thing about knowledge is that it allows us to see the truth. It is through knowledge that we will never be blinded by the lies of those who wished to use us for their own gains unless we allow ourselves to."

Naruto nodded quietly in acknowledgement of his sensei's words before opening the scroll. Pouring a bit of chakra into the seal, a book appeared in front of him in a puff of smoke. Taking it with one hand, he flipped it open and briefly skipped through the pages which were filled with words although there was a picture or two sometimes. There was something about the book that felt ancient. "Take good care of these books Naruto. These books are the last of their kind; there are neither produced nor published anywhere in the Elemental Countries. Should anything happen to them, the knowledge contained within these books would be lost forever."

"Wow …" Naruto said as he closed the book.

If what his sensei was true … he didn't really know what to say. That his sensei was prepared to entrust such important items to him was something he had never expected. Apparently, his sensei must have read his mind as he suddenly spoke. "You are my student Naruto and no matter how precious these books are, it is my responsibility to ensure that you receive the proper education as much as possible. Of course, I do hope that you will take good care of them."

"Thanks Takito-sama, I'll learn every single word in all these books if I have to," Naruto promised as he carefully stored the book back into the storage seal.

As he put the scroll aside, a question popped into his head.

"Say Takito-sama, if these books are really precious, how did you get them?"

"I obtained them many years ago in Amegakure back during the Second Shinobi World War. Back when these books weren't regarded as forbidden texts there."

"Amegakure? Is that where you came from Takito-sama?" Naruto asked.

"No, Amegakure was never my home although I did spend the majority of my years there."

"Oh," the blonde said. "So what was Amegakure like? And what do you mean about the books being forbidden texts there?" His sensei's past was something that interested him and the reply the shinobi had given him had only served to pique his curiousity. However, Naruto thought he saw a slight expression of regret on his sensei's face although it was gone when he blinked his eyes.

"I'm sorry Naruto but it's something I don't really want to talk about. There were certain things that happened there … things I don't really want to talk about."

There was a trace of bitterness in his voice and the shinobi's eyes were filled with suspicion. [6] For a moment, everything was tense and silent and Naruto realized that he must have threaded on something that were never meant to be asked. Deciding that he shouldn't be asking anymore questions about his sensei's past, the Yondaime's son politely took his leave. Takito did not reply to his departure; the shinobi had a distant look as though he was remembering something in his past.

As he headed back home, Naruto felt deep in his heart that he would never be able to find out about his sensei's past.

* * *

-Explanations-

[1] This was the first time Takito was teaching someone. Since he was supposed to keep it as a secret, he was trying to see what sort of timetable was best suited for both him and Naruto. Furthermore, this was also to ensure that it would be harder for Naruto's family to notice a certain pattern in Naruto's activities until Naruto was hopefully proficient enough to wear the mask. By the end of the first year, based on the observations he had made, Takito will be able to decide what sort of timetable to use for Naruto's training, whether he should still stick to the current style or begin using a constant timetable with the right days allocated.

[2] Some deals and discussions are never meant to be made in the open where the sensitive details and information that may jeopardize diplomatic relations and one's reputation could be heard. Sarutobi himself knows with a heavy heart that sometimes … compromises must be made especially in times of war.

[3] Naruto is grateful for the fact that he has someone to teach him the arts of the shinobi but like any other kid would have preffered his parents to teach him. Who wouldn't especially his/her parents happened to be one of the most powerful shinobis in the village? Please note that Naruto had also just started his training and still thought highly of his family despite the recent incident.

[4] About three to four months of a head start.

[5] As Naruto progressed in his training, the way he walks, his stance, the way he speaks, sees and reacts to things around him will definitely change. This would be easily noticed by anyone if they were attentive enough.

[6] The way one would look if he/she was being protective about his/her past.

* * *

-Author's Note-

Chapter 2 is now complete.

Once again, not much has been changed in this chapter.

Originally, I intended to add a few more parts which will describe about how the two will get closer to each other (no yaoi just in case you readers are wondering) but decided that to write it all into a new chapter. In other words, a new chapter is going to be written which will continue from here instead of the rewritten version of chapter 3 from the old fanfic.

One more thing to note, someone had asked me a good question about how powerful Naruto and Natsuki will be. Both Naruto and Natsuki will be stronger than their father but will not reach the same level as Madara. Both will be equal in their overall power when compared to each other with their own specialty, advantages and unique set of skills than the other one.

How that would be the case will be revealed in future chapters.

Anyways, I'm going to take a break for a day before resuming to writting this fanfic.

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.

Thank you for your reviews and for reading this story.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 3

-Months later-

It was a bright and peaceful day like any other day in the Hidden Leaf Village.

The streets of the village were noisy and bustling with activity as the people of Konoha went about with their daily lives. The mood was mainly positive as it had always been for the past few years and one could easily hear the friendly greetings and excited chatter by the villagers. In a small medicine shop, Naruto was quiet as he witnessed the entire scene for a few minutes from the comfort of his chair at the side of the counter before turning his attention back to a large brown book that contained a detailed list of bank accounts with each one under a different name and the transactions made to them during the previous month.

It was a Saturday and there weren't any lessons for the day. He would have usually spent the day with his family but it so happened that his parents and the head of the Hyuuga clan had agreed a few days ago for his sister Natsuki to have a joint training session [1] together with her close friend Hinata today. Realizing that there was nothing for him to do there except for to watch the two girls train, he had declined to follow his family to the Hyuuga clan compound. With his family gone after lunch and having practiced chakra spinning the entire morning, Naruto had decided to take a break from his ninja training for the day and head over to his sensei's shop to see if there was anything that he could do there. Knowing that the shinobi would be working at his shop on such days, he had figured that he could try to help his sensei at the very least. Despite being busy, Takito had not mind him coming but was unable to spend any time with him and so had come out with a few tasks for him to do. They had been nothing too difficult; sweeping the floor, restocking the shelves with medicine and now this which was adjusting the numbers for a couple of bank accounts. Although Takito had instructed him to only do the transactions that involved simple addition and subtraction of a few small numbers [2], the ongoing work was still tedious but he had been diligent in his work for an hour and it won't be long now before he was finished.

Meanwhile, Takito himself was currently haggling with a ninja who had come to buy some medicine for an upcoming mission. Normally, Naruto would have been worried that the ninja might notice him but he was in his disguise and as long as he played his role, there was little to be worried about. His sensei had created a set of seals for him a few months back to help change his looks to a black haired boy with no facial resemblances whatsoever to him together with a false identity which were to be used whenever he was practicing his mask wearing or was going to see his sensei.

Right now, he was Minori Arikato; a distant relative of Rikuto Arikato who had came to stay with his granduncle and work under him to learn the tools of trade. He had been doing this for quite a while now and had grown used to the process of switching identities. However, there were still many things that he had yet to do properly, one of which was acting differently in front of everyone in the village when he was in his disguise.

Writing down the results of his calculations for the last transaction he was working on into the book with a pencil, the boy paused for a moment to think about how his training had been going. While he had successfully caught up with his sister and in some fields actually overtake her, his progress was beginning to slow down as he now faced a new set of challenges. Besides getting harder, his lessons now involved practicing every single skill that the shinobi had been teaching him. There was a certain standard which he now had to maintain in his performances during the training. If he failed to do so, he would be punished accordingly and was not allowed to advance any further until he had achieved that standard. On certain occasions, Takito would not completely teach him a certain topic and would instead leave a few hints as to where he could look for the answers. Only if he was unable to understand the topic after referring to the sources of information would the shinobi only then teach him that unfinished part.

Nevertheless, the blonde enjoyed his training especially the times when he could try out what he had learned. It brought a sense of satisfaction to be able to use his chakra to create a clone or two of himself or to walk up walls and trees, something that the other kids including his sister had yet to accomplish. Recently, his sensei had been considering the decision to introduce a few new fields into his training and Naruto was hoping that it would be the case. Seeing that his work was finally complete, he turned to look at his right only to find that the customer had already left while Takito was storing the money away.

"How are you doing with the work I've given you?" Takito asked without looking at him as he deposited the money into a scroll with a storage seal on it.

"It's finished oji-sama," the boy replied before handing the book over to his sensei.

Opening the book, the shinobi disguised as an old man took a moment to examine the Hokage's son's work before nodding. "Good, your writing is neat and you did not make any mistakes in your work. I think that I can allow you to work on the more challenging ones in the future," he stated before sitting down beside his student and writing a few extra notes into the book. "That aside, you've been a great help today and I really appreciate it Minori."

"You're welcome oji-sama," Naruto said with a beaming face.

"Well, there's no longer any work left for you to do so what are you going to do now?"

"To be honest, I don't really know oji-sama," Naruto admitted. It was now 3.17 pm which meant that he had around an hour left before Natsuki was done.

Takito had a deep frown as he observed his student while thinking about the entire situation. Perhaps he should do something to keep his student company. He suspected that the boy was tired of doing anything related to ninjas for the day nor was he keen in going to the Hyuuga clan to see his sister train as it probably reminded him that he was being excluded by his parents from the training. [3] With that in mind, the shinobi put the book away and went to get his wallet. "Tell me Minori, are you interested in going out for a snack? It's my treat," he said as he returned from the other room with his wallet in hand.

Naruto blinked his eyes in surprise. "Huh? Well, I would like to oji-sama ... but are you alright with that?"

"Don't worry about it Minori, I'm fine with it. If anything, think of this as a reward for the help you've been today."

"Wow, thanks Ta-I mean oji-sama! But what about your shop?" Naruto said before getting up from his seat and following Takito out of the shop.

"You need not worry Minori. I think I can afford to close my shop early just this once," the shinobi assured his student before closing the doors of his shop. "And not many people tend to visit my shop anyways."

"If you say so. So where are we going?" the boy eagerly asked.

"You'll find out soon enough."

* * *

-An hour later-

Naruto smacked his lips as he made his way home, the taste of the gyutan that he and his sensei had at the Yakiniku Q still fresh in his mind.

Upon arriving at the yakiniku restaurant, the two of them had taken their seats at a small, quiet corner of the place. Takito had allowed him to pick his own choices from the menu but Naruto had been content to let his sensei make the decision for him at it was his first time here and the shinobi seemed familiar with the food offered here. As a result, his 'granduncle' had ordered a plate of gyutan which was the main specialty of the well-known establishment for the each of them.

He had been hesitant to try it out at first but after taking in the savory smell of the salted beef tongues when they were cooked and seeing his sensei ate one, had allowed himself his curiosity to triumph over the reservations that he had about the dish. Mustering whatever courage that he had, he had slowly taken his first bite and was immediately struck by the delicate taste of the gyutan which he had found much to his surprise to be almost at the same level as his favorite food ramen. Before he knew it, he had found himself quickly taking another bite and another. That had earned a chuckle from his sensei which had came as a surprise for Naruto seeing that the man had always been aloof and dull since the very time they had first met.

After he had calmed down, he had proceeded to follow his sensei's manner of taking his time to finish his remaining beef tongues, savoring each bite before swallowing his food.

The both of them had then relaxed, enjoying the friendly atmosphere of the restaurant and observing their surroundings while quietly sipping their tea. It was here that they had started talking about the gyutan that they had when Takito had then told him an interesting story of how the salted beef tongues had first came to be served just after the third war and how it quickly rose to popularity in a matter of months. It turned out that during the Third Shinobi World War, meat was something of a rarity. With most of the livestocks killed by enemy ninjas, robbed by bandits or taken by soldiers, meat back then had rapidly became something that only the nobles and high-ups coud afford to have at a daily basis. As for the majority of the common folk, it became a treasure that they could at the very most have during major events or holidays and even then, the meat that they had was mostly bits and scraps. After the war had ended, meat had remained expensive and rare as it took time for the livestocks to grow to the size suitable for slaughter provided there were even anyone who could afford the price to buy them.

It was during this time that an owner of a yakitori restaurant had decided to serve the cow tongues and tails left behind by the soldiers and ninjas who had occupied the town which was his home during the war. Back then, eating the tails and tongues of animals was unheard of but many in the town had found the idea better than not having any meat at all. They started liking it and soon proudly declared it as something much tastier than the meat that they had used to eat. Travellers and passer-bys initially frowned at the dish but got used to eating the gyutan in time. Soon, news of the salted beef tongues had spread across the Elemental Countries and the ordinary people started trying out the idea for themselves. As many of the common people did it, some curious noble or rich person had decided to give it a try. And when one among the upper classes did that, others found themselves trying it also. And today, gyutan was one of the most popular dishes known throughout the land. By the time Takito was finished with the tale, Naruto had been so absorbed in it that he didn't notice that he had finished drinking his tea. Who would have known that the idea of gyutan that was now so popular among everyone was started out due to the lack of meat? [4]

When they had returned back to the medicine shop, more than an hour had already passed and Naruto had to return home. Of course, he had remembered to say his thanks to his sensei for bringing him out and treating him to a delicious snack. The ninja in return had dismissed his thanks, saying that there was no need for him to do so before both teacher and student had parted ways.

In the Yondaime's son's opinion, the entire experience was a welcome change to the times when he followed his family out for a snack.

For the past recent months, his family had the tendency to always head to the shop that sold anpan for a snack. Not that he had any problem with the bun but there was only so much that he could eat before he became tired of it. How was his parents able to eat them all the time was something of a mystery to him. And unlike his parents, Takito was willing to spend the time to listen to him and had many interesting things to talk about. As he headed inside of his home, he spotted his family's shoes arranged neatly at the shoe rack and knew that his family was back.

"I'm back," Naruto called out. It was his mother who replied.

"Naruto, you're back. Where have you been?" she asked as she appeared from the kitchen.

"I was just taking a walk around the village kaa-chan," he answered politely.

His mother nodded. "Well, dinner will be ready in half an hour so why don't you go get yourself cleaned up first?"

"Yes kaa-chan," the boy said before heading upstairs to his room. As he was about to head into his room, he caught sight of Natsuki talking to their father, recounting everything that she had done with the Hyuuga clan heiress during the joint training session and sighed.

It has already been more than a year since he had hoped that his family would realize the results of their actions and as much as it hurts for him to admit, it was likely that that would never be the case. It was a good thing that he had the fortune of being trained in the shinobi arts by Takito or he would have probably felt a lot worse about the whole thing. The ninja lessons had done much to help distract him from the thoughts of being excluded by his family. In the end though, the pain was still there and he couldn't help but wonder whether his family did really care for him these da-

'No.' Naruto immediately told himself. He should not be doubting his family.

All of this was happening because Natsuki needed to learn how to control the Kyuubi and it was only possible if they spent a lot of time with her which in turn meant sacrificing most of the time they would usually spend with him. And it was hard for his father and mother to notice him if they were busy trying to teach something that was very hard to do to his sister. Maybe when Natsuki was finally able to use her powers without any risk of losing control, things would change back to the way that they were supposed to be. After all, there was no longer the need for his parents or his sister to exclude him when that happened. And it was months away from now; Naruto remembered having overheard his father telling his mother that Natsuki should be able to enter the academy next year [5] without any risk of losing control just two days ago. There was never the need for him to have such thoughts about his family. [6]

In the meantime, he would just have to be patient and wait until that day arrives and while doing so, will continue his training with Takito in secret. It felt bad to have to lie to his family about his activities but it was necessary. His sensei had told him that no one in the village would ever agree to him training with the mysterious shinobi and Naruto did not want to be behind his fellow kids. Besides, the man had promised to explain everything when the time was right and Naruto believed him. Yes, everything must continue the way they are although it won't be easy for him to bear. Maybe he could divert some of his free time with his sensei in the future to keep himself even more occupied.

* * *

So Naruto had made a major change to his daily timetable. On the non-lesson days, he would no longer walk around the village and the times that he would usually spend with his family was reduced in order for him to be able to visit his sensei more often and to have more time to read the books and scrolls given to him by the shinobi. Of course, he knew that his actions might attract the attention of his family which he had now understood from his mask wearing lessons was something that must be avoided and had came out with a solution for this. [7]

A few days after he had came up with the new timetable, he had asked his parents whether he was allowed to visit the village library, stating the need to learn about ninjas in order to prepare himself for the day when he became one.

It didn't required as much persuasion and questioning as he'd expected for the two adults to give him the permission to do so as they had felt guilty about their son's situation and figured that the boy could do with some early learning on his own. What was the harm in letting him go anyways? The books that their son was allowed access to at this point were those on the academy level which did not contain any dangerous jutsus or skills that the boy might think of trying. With that, Naruto was able to visit his sensei during his free time and could use the excuse of being in the library whenever his family questioned him about his activities for the day.

That was not to say that he did not go to the library at all; he still had to put up a false image in front of everyone and the library in fact provided him with a much better place for him to read his reading materials than his home. It was quieter and more importantly free from any possible interruptions by his sister, parents or the occasional guests back at home. Getting the books and scrolls in and out of the place without being noticed was easy as Takito had again helped create another seal for him to conceal them from plain sight after Naruto had consulted with him about his plan. The ninja didn't exactly approved of his modified timetable but seeing that his excuse of heading to the library was able to convince his family, decided to let it be. Only once in a while would Naruto actually read a book from the library which he had found to be lacking in content when compared to the ones by his sensei and ask a question or two about the book from his parents.

As the months went by, Naruto had became satisfied with the way things were working out and had believed that everything would be simple from then on; that he had only need to continue with his new timetable and wait patiently for the year's end. However, it wasn't long before the same problem that he had managed to put aside for the time being came back to bother him once more, this time in the form of the children of his age.

The Yondaime's son had noticed that many of his fellow children were also beginning to show more interest in Natsuki and had the habit of trying to spend as much as time as they could with her which would sometimes result in him feeling somewhat left out. Another thing that annoyed him to no end about them was that whenever they all were chatting among themselves, he was unable to join in their conversation if the topic that they were discussing was about anything that was related to ninjas. As far as everyone in the village knew, Minato's son had never gotten any sort of training and Naruto realized that that he couldn't engage in the other kids' conversations regarding shinobis without creating any suspicion especially from his sister. He had tried to use what he had learned from the library books but his topic were mostly regarded by the children including Natsuki as boring. Seriously, it sucks to have so much to talk about and yet could not do so and can only listen to what others have to say or was simply ignored over a stupid reason. [8]

After several weeks of trying and failing, Naruto had given up and found himself only looking foward to the times when he could hang out with Takito who was the only person whom he could truly be open with.

When there weren't any customers to handle or work to do in the shop, the two of them would often go around the village where the ninja would show him all sorts of things that his parents had never done with him. If they weren't going around the village, they woud be talking about anything that had came into their mind for the day which was mostly the latest news that either of them had heard. Granted, Naruto had trouble understanding some of the things that his sensei would speak about but at least they were able to have a long and enjoyable conversation in the end. And if he was lucky, Takito would have an interesting story to tell him regarding the topic they were discussing about at that time. Otherwise, they would be playing a game of shogi, something that Naruto had gained a liking to despite having yet to win a single round against his sensei.

In the end, Naruto had decided that like his previous decision, it was best to ignore his problems with everyone else and accept the situation as it was. He had someone that he could at least spend his time with and it was better to focus on that than to fret about everyone else until the next year for it would not serve him any good.

He would adapt to the current situation, just as any ninja would have done.

* * *

-Explanation-

[1] In the world of shinobis where politics and intrigue are the main issues, it is common for certain clans or nobles to have a joint training session or something similar for their children. This can be for various reasons such as fostering better relations among factions, getting one's children to become closer with one another for future political purposes or to create a better training enviroment. While Minato's intentions for this are pretty easy to figure out, there are several reasons for the Hyuuga clan to be doing this, some which are not mentioned here and are left to you readers to figure out for yourselves.

[2] Naruto may be smart but he is a six year old boy. There is only so much that he can do.

[3] Please note that in the story that each character can sometimes have their own perspective of things that may be biased or incorrect even if they are the main characters.

[4] The original story (wikipedia, not exactly 100% reliable) was that an owner of a yakitori restaurant in Japan open a restaurant to serve such a dish and decided to use the cow tongues and tails left over by the occupational forces in 1948. I just decided to create a slightly different story for the gyutan in this fanfic.

[5] Some of you might have noticed that Naruto will be entering the academy at the age of seven instead of the previously mentioned nine. This was because I was writing this chapter when I decided to check the forums for some information on the Naruto's world and discovered that the main agreement among the majority of people was that the Naruto characters entered the academy at the age span of 5-7.

Looking back, it does sound kind of ridiculous for the children to enter the academy at the age of nine so I decided to change the age of entering the academy in this fanfic to 7. Sorry if this is seen as an inconvenience. Anyways, this change now allows me to come up with a few ideas for the next chapter.

[6] Keep in mind that this is still the early stage of Naruto's problem with his family and as previously mentioned several times, he has a high opinion of his family and thus tries to find a reason for his family's actions. Over time however, he will start to question the reasons for his family's actions.

[7] Naruto learns the need to put up a false image to hide one's intentions and secrets during his mask wearing lessons. This also makes him realize why Takito during the first year had always encourage him to go out with his family or to walk around the village.

[8] Naruto finds it stupid that the other kids including Natsuki find his topics from the books boring considering that they haven't really give reading a book a try. It's like saying that fish tastes horrible when one has not even try one.

* * *

-Author's Note-

Chapter 3 is now complete.

Honestly, I am not satisfied with this chapter of mine. Not only does it take so two months to complete which I was trying to completely avoid, this chapter felt as though I just jumbled up my ideas and chop them into blocks.

I'm not even sure whether this chapter is trying to portray what I was trying to show; both Naruto and Takito getting closer to one another and the beginning of how Naruto starts to get distant from everyone else. But after rewriting it several times, I feel that this is the best I can come with for this chapter. My apologies if any of you did not enjoy this chapter after waiting for a long time.

The good thing now is that I can now begin on chapter 4 which is the rewritten version of chapter 3 in the previous fanfic and the next chapter will definitely have better elaborations and some extra content. Also, I've been reading other fanfics and books to see how I can change my style of writing into a more enjoyable one.

Feel free to point out anything that I could have done to improve this chapter so that I can take into mind how to write better chapters of such in the future.

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.

Thank you for your reviews and for reading this story.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 4

-Konoha Academy-

"Begin," the chunin instructor Iruka Umino said, signalling the start of the taijutsu spar.

The training field was suddenly filled with the excited chatter and whispers of the academy students as they watched a pair of boys standing in a ring engaged each other in a taijutsu spar. As the spar began to play out in favor of a nine year old Inuzuka Kiba, a certain blonde kid who was standing slightly away from a group of boys gave a sigh together with an annoyed look at the increase in the volume of the noise before turning his attention back to a book. He had been reading for a while now and seemed to show not the slightest interest in the ongoing spar or any of the earlier ones.

But if one were to observe him carefully, one would have noticed that the boy's eyes had never been focused on the book but rather on the two combatants of every spar that had been fought or that he had only flipped a page or two after several minutes which was unusual to anyone who had seen the boy read before.

But with so many interesting spars to watch, who would have the time to notice such details?

Naruto was quiet as he observed the current spar intently, studying every detail of the fight. He watched the two students fought, taking note of their body movements, the way they reacted to the attacks thrown at them, whether they had been planning their moves ahead and the confidence displayed by the both of them. He knew that every student here was of the same age as him, the ones that he was supposed to continue studying with for a few more years and the ones he would be working with should he officially become a shinobi of Konoha.

That in a matter of weeks, would no longer be his future teammates but possible enemies instead.

It was best that he made use of the opportunity to study as much as he could about each and every one of them to understand their behaviors, strengths and weaknesses for there was no telling how useful the information would be in the future.

Granted, such information was going to quickly become oudated and unreliable but it was better to have something to refer to than nothing.

The spar went on for a couple of minutes before it was drawn to a conclusion with the Inuzuka unsurprisingly being the victor. As the instructor of his class approached the two boys to talk to them about their performances, Naruto turned his eyes back to the book while going through everything that he had just learned from the fight in his head. Satisfied with what he had just learned, he waited for the next pair of names to be called out. As he did so, a part of his mind unconciously wondered to the day when he had first met Takito and how much his life had changed since then.

It has been nearly five years since that day when he'd first begun his training in the ninja arts under the mysterious shinobi.

As he had progressed further in his training, the hardships and challenges that he faced only got harder but in the end, they had done little to deter him from his promise to become the greatest ninja ever known. By the end of the third year, his training had undergone a massive change and Naruto had suddenly found himself practicing all sorts of jutsus and skills with his sensei in both the training area and the village itself.

Having mastered the basic academy taijutsu moves, Takito had decided to teach Naruto his very own personal taijutsu style. Unlike the previous years where he'd practiced his taijutsu on some imaginary targets, he now sparred constantly with his sensei. The man was now stricter than ever, punishing him for even the slightest mistakes that he made during the spar with painful jabs, all while the ninja would notify him of the mistakes he had made. Based on what Naruto had learned from the many spars he had with the shinobi, his sensei's style was one that relied heavily on agility and could be used for both defensive and offensive purposes. It mainly focused on dodging the enemy's attacks, all while baiting the opponent into making a mistake. And once there was an opening, the user was to immediately take full advantage of it by going on the full offensive, striking the crucial parts of the human body with the sole purpose of killing the target or if failing to do so, severely injuring the target and rendering him or her crippled and useless in combat.

It was during these lessons that Takito had taught him a few interesting facts about the human body, about the functions of each vital organ and how damaging them would affect the target. It made Naruto realized just how fragile a human was and it slightly unnerved him that he was going to be using this knowledge to take the lives of others in the future.

When it came to his genjutsu lessons, the shinobi had chosen to implement a rather strange way of teaching him.

Whenever it was time for his genjutsu training, he and his sensei would head out to the village where they would then try to find a quiet and isolated spot in the village. From there, he was to practice his genjutsu on the unsuspecting populace of the village that happened to pass by the spot.

It was easier said than done as Naruto had came to learn that it was never a simple thing to just cast a genjutsu on anyone especially in a village full of ninjas that would come investigating if they happened to detect his genjutsu. Fortunately for him, Takito was always there to get him out of trouble when they did occur. Currently, Naruto was able to use his genjutsu on multiple shinobis that were at the rank of chunin or below undetected and could maintain them for a long period of time should he pour his fullest concentration into it. They were only minor ones however, simple tricks that did not change anything major or inflict any harm on the targets and it would be a while before he was able to learn the more advanced ones.

In ninjutsu, Naruto's training consisted of nothing more than hours and hours of continuously praciticing certain jutsus. Unlike his sister who was taught a jutsus from time to time, Naruto was never allowed to learn a new one until he had mastered those that were taught to him. While this had resulted in him having a smaller arsenal of jutsus to use compared to Natsuki, he had the better control over his jutsus and could use them without consuming much of his chakra. To his sensei, this was more important than being able to use a large variety of jutsus. There was little point in having so many jutsus to use if one could not use them to their greatest capabilities or know how to adapt their jutsus to the situation.

Several new subjects had also been introduced into his training during the third year of his training, some of which he had never seen or heard of before.

In the poor districts of Konoha, Naruto's lessons in subterfuge and espionage took place. It was here that Takito had taught him how to blend in with the masses, how to mask his emotions and actions from the shinobis that patrolled the village and how to stalk someone unnoticed. The ninja showed him the ways of pickpocketing the pockets of the people around him, how to use the right disguise in different environments, to read encrypted messages, to eavesdrop on conversations and gossips and how to discern the truth from the many layers of lies and stories.

Sometimes, he was told to observe certain people, to study their actions and understand them. Whenever this happened, Takito would always make him ask himself an important question.

Why?

Why did the head of the Hyuuga clan beat up his own daughter?

Why did that member of the council supported that particular policy?

Each question had forced the Yondaime's son to think outside the box, to see things from different perspectives and never in black and white.

And then there was his weapon training. While his sensei did not use a sword like his mother, the shinobi instead specialized in a rather unique weapon, one that Naruto had seen several times in the weapon shops that he had visited with his sensei. It was the kusarigama; a weapon that consisted of a kama that was connected to a metal chain that had an iron weight attached to it at the other end.

As far as Naruto knew, the kusarigama had never been a popular weapon in the village. It did not look as interesting as the sword or most weapons and the kusarigama was difficult to use let alone master. But looking part all of those, it could not be denied that its deadliness in combat was something to be reckoned with. Unlike the sword which utilized the slash and stab, the kusarigama relied on slashing with the kama up close or swinging the heavy weight and using its deadly momentum to literally smash the enemy to bits from afar. With its chain, its wielder could disarm the opponent or entangle him or her in a way that would leave the target vulnerable. But for all its features, the weapon had a major flaw to it. In order for the kusarigama to be wielded effectively, the user needed a wide and open space. In any areas that were confined or had little space, the kusarigama was near useless. Due to this, Takito had advised him several times to always keep an eye on his environment before thinking of engaging his enemies with the kusarigama when he became a ninja in the future.

Despite having so much of his time being filled with so many lessons and practices, Naruto did not neglect his favorite subject fuinjutsu. While Takito still forbade him from creating or designing any seals on his own, the range of seals that he was allowed to work on had been expanded. Naruto would often work on his seals on Saturdays where he would head out to his sensei's shop and quietly spend the entire day improving his sealing skills.

However, being able to create more complicated seals wasn't enough in his sensei's view and the shinobi had recently started training him to be able to create and use his seals under immense pressure and within short periods of time. The entire ordeal was very tough and Naruto had lost count of the amount of the paper he had thrown aside as rubbish during the training but he knew that it would be beneficial for him and was worth the trouble and effort.

Naruto was broken from his thoughts as he heard someone called his name and the boy looked up to see what it was.

It was his chunin instructer and Naruto then understood that he had just been picked for the next round of the taijutsu spar.

Nodding at Iruka, the Yondaime's son put his book aside and walked over to the ring, seeing that his opponent was Sasuke Uchiha. As the two of them performed the Seal of Confrontation [1], Naruto went through the plans for his spar against the Uchiha in his head. He had observed his sister's rival's performance on several occassions before and deduced that it would pose some challenge for him to defeat the black-haired boy.

Of course, winning the spar against the Uchiha was the last thing that he had in mind.

Had his sparring partner been anyone else save his sister, Naruto would not have hesitated to defeat him or her, so long as it did not involve revealing any of his true skills. But Sasuke wasn't just anyone. From the day he had entered the academy, Sasuke had been very popular in the academy, being regarded by many of the students and teachers to be gifted as his brother Itachi and second only to his sister Natsuki. For a student who was seen by everyone to be only above average, beating the son of the head of the Uchiha clan would draw a lot of attention on him and was likely to compromise the mask that he had been wearing in front of everyone in the village all this time. Not to mention that the extra attention would only be a burden on his already tight schedule. No, it would serve his purpose if he were to lose to the Uchiha though it would be best if he tried to make it looked as though he had put up some sort of a decent fight.

With that, the blonde got himself into the standard academy taijutsu stance and waited for the signal that would begin the spar.

* * *

-Meanwhile-

"It's been a really long time since I've last seen you Ao. I must admit that I am a bit surprised to see you here," Takito said as he rummaged through the cupboard in front of him. "Tea?"

The ninja was in the smaller room of his shop that he had just closed for the day and was still in his disguise. The man he was speaking to was standing at the counter who was in his late twenties and wore a serious expression on his face. There was an eye patch covering the man's right eye and a headband with the symbol of Kirigakure, the Hidden Mist Village on his forehead. Ao did not reply at he took his seat at the counter, studying the room he was in.

"Tea it is then," Takito mumbled to himself before producing a pot filled with hot tea together with two cups.

He took his seat on the other side of the counter, putting the two cups on the counter desk before pouring the tea into them and handing one over to his guest. The hunter-nin eyed the cup of tea warily and waited for Takito to drink his tea before cautiously sipping from his own cup. For a while, neither one said a word as the two men finished their tea in silence. Several minutes had passed before Takito finally spoke.

"Tell me Ao, why are you here? I doubt that you came here for a friendly chat. Mei sent you here didn't she?"

After all, she was the only person in Kirigakure who knew where he was for the past ten years. One of the few that he had still kept in contact with.

"Yes, I was sent by her. I am sure that you have heard of the civil war that is currently happening back in Kirigakure by now."

Takito nodded his head. With the help of certain reliable sources, he had been able to keep a close track of the events that were occurring throughout the Elemental Countries. He knew that just three months ago, a large part of Kirigakure had chosen to rebel against their Mizukage and were being led by Mei Terumi who was one of the few remaining friends that he had. Seeing the shinobi nod his head, Ao chose to continue.

"Then I'm sure you know the reason I'm here Takito. For the last three months, we have been gathering as much support as we can for the war against Yagura. Even now, several missing-nins that were once part of the village including Zabuza himself has agreed to return and join the war. While we may not be able to reverse the damage that had already been done, we can at the very least put and end to Yagura's reign and the madness that he has started."

"I understand that you're no longer interested in working for any of the hidden villages years ago Takito but we could use your help. Your skills can help us end this war faster than it needs to be and avoid having more blood spilt than it already has."

Takito said nothing and poured himself another cup of tea. It was a while before he spoke once more.

"I'm in. That is, if your side is willing to agree to a few terms of mine." [2]

"And what would those terms be?" Ao asked as he narrowed his eyes at the shinobi.

Takito turned to look at Ao and saw the suspicion in the hunter-nin's eyes.

"It's nothing much," Takito said, pausing to take another sip before continuing. "Just the same ones that your village had agreed to back then."

Ao frowned as he realized what the ninja was asking for. He wanted to say no but decided against it; the shinobi would never agree to anything less than that and Mei had been adamant on securing Takito's support in the war.

"Fair enough," he replied. "Now, when will you be able to get to Kirigakure?"

"Hmm, three weeks. There are some unfinished business that I need to clear up elsewhere and it is going to take some time."

Ao nodded his head although he did not feel satisfied with the shinobi's answer. He had known the man long enough to know that the ninja had never really cared for any of the hidden villages he had served. So what were the reasons for him agreeing to this? [3] Nevertheless, his mission was complete and there were other shinobis that he needed to contact. He will just have to keep a close watch on Takito's activities when the shinobi arrived at Kirigakure. Takito watched the Kirigakure ninja leave before giving a tired sigh. It was a good thing that the hunter-nin did not pursue the reaons behind his decision to join the war for Takito doubted that Ao would have allowed him to if he had known about his plans.

Truth be told, he had already made up his mind to join the rebels in the civil war a long time ago.

He could have departed with his student when the boy had agreed to follow him but he had chose to wait to see if anyone would come requesting his aid. It helped to have some sort of excuse for him to be there, something to smoothen his operations there and cause fewer questions to be asked.

The foremost reason for all of this was for his student Naruto. For nearly five years, he had trained Minato's son in the art of the shinobi and while he had yet to teach the kid everything, the boy possessed more knowledge and skill than any other kid in Konoha. Though his student did not know it, he was as strong as a low ranking chunin which was impressive for one his age.

Takito had to admit that he had somehow grown attached to the Yondaime's son somewhere along those years.

Besides, he did feel responsible for his student's future was he was uncertain about if the kid was to remain here in Konoha.

When Minato and Kushina had finally decided to include their son into the training, he had felt a mixture of satisfaction and regret, with the latter feeling gone when Naruto had told him that he did not want to stop his training with him though he did not say why, not that Takito actually minded. Things had became really tight for Naruto's timetable because of that but at least it had seemed at that time that the boy's problem with his family was going to be fixed. The boy's parents had begun to include Naruto back with their activities and Takito was sure that the bonds between them would be back to normal.

That was, until he had noticed that the two had slowly went back to paying more attention to Natsuki than their son.

Perhaps it was partly his fault that Naruto had became more reserved than his family than he normally would have. In return, his parents could had had mistook their son's lack of communication that the boy did not need as much time as his energetic sister who could not be left alone for more than a minute. Maybe there was a problem with Natsuki's control over the Kyuubi than he wasn't aware of, one which could have forced the two to suddenly need to divert the attention meant for their son back to her. Or did they just so happened to have gotten used to ignoring their son and caring more for their daughter? Whatever it was, it had hurt his student and the two people he had once respected had still played a role in it.

And if they thought that Naruto would be fine on his own, they could be nowhere near the truth.

What about Konoha which was the boy's home?

It was to be expected that the people in the village would generally show more attention to the jinchuriki over the fact that she was the saviour of Konoha. At least they had not completely forgotten or ignore the Yondaime's son though Takito wished they could have done more.

But they had yet to see the real Naruto.

How would they react once his student revealed his true colors?

To this day, the people of Konoha still had a narrow-minded perception of the things around them, one that had been reinforced by every event that should have been taken as an important lesson to the point where anyone that did not share their view was often looked down upon. Would they accept Naruto's personality and mindset that was different from theirs? Or would they shun him as they would with anyone else they deemed different?

What if they were to learn the boy had been learning under him?

Takito was not going to take any chances to find out.

He recalled several times where he had noticed Naruto feeling upset over the lack of acknowledgement by his family despite the boy's attempts to hide those feelings from him. He also knew that the boy did not have any friends or anyone else for there was barely a time where Minato's son did not spend his time with him. He had done the best he could to care for his student and fill the void that his family was supposed to be doing but there was only so much that he could do without risking his cover.

It was already surprising that no one had yet to become suspicious of the boy's now tight and busy schedule and Takito wasn't keen on pushing his luck.

Because of this, when Takito had heard about the civil war, a part of him had considered the idea of getting his student to leave Konoha, to start a new life and follow him to Kirigakure. And as he spent more time thinking about it, the more he agreed with the idea. There was no doubt that Naruto's future as a shinobi in Konoha did not look promising and the boy would have better chance if he left.

It also allowed him to look after his student and have an easier time of training his student. Things were becoming very difficult for the both of them ever since Naruto's entry into the academy and it wasn't long before the boy's progress under him would be brought to a snail's pace.

The civil war will help Naruto adapt quickly to the harsh reality of the world, help him establish his career as a shinobi and give him the experience needed to survive the dangers that will be thrown at him.

Besides, Sarutobi had never specified which village the kid should be serving, only that he was to ensure that the boy would grow up to become a fine shinobi. At the very worst, his student could become an independant ninja, a thought which Takito had entertained but would leave it up to his student to decide at a later time. The ninja somehow felt that his deceased friend would have probably agreed with this too if he knew how Naruto was doing in Konoha.

And yet, was bringing his student to Kirigakure to take part in the civil war the right thing to do? Takito was well aware that to do so would meant dragging the boy into a war that wasn't his to be involved with in the first place. What if his student wasn't ready for the horrors that all wars have? What if the boy got injured or worse crippled? Takito knew deep down that he could never forgive himself if anything of that sort was to happen to his student.

'No, there is no room for doubt.' the ninja thought as he went back to his second room.

He had better things to do than to be having such thoughts.

He had to make sure that Mei's side held all the cards in the civil war. He had to plan for the journey to Kirigakure for both him and Naruto. Find those that could influence the outcome of the war - merchants, smugglers, the news printers, even the nobility and bring them to Mei's side. Plot the routes that would offer a safe and fast travel to the Land of Water, study the security of the Hidden Leaf Village, prepare the false rumours and diversions that will be planted when they leave the village. There was a lot of contacting to be done, favors to call in, threats to make and preparations to complete.

It was a lot of work but it mattered little to him.

Those whom he cared for were relying on him, and he was going to make sure that their trust was not misplaced.

* * *

It was around 6.30 pm when Naruto had returned home, having visited the Konoha library after school had ended.

After having his dinner and a warm shower, he headed to his bedroom which was filled with all sorts of books and reading materials that were arranged neatly in several stacks. Making himself comfortable on his bed, he began his chakra spinning exercise. He knew several advanced methods for practicing his chakra control but it had become a habit for him to practice chakra spinning every night before he slept.

When an hour had passed, he decided that it was enough and retired to his bed. As he laid down on his bed, he thought about his decision to follow his sensei to leave his home and join the civil war in Kirigakure two months ago. He could hardly believe it at first when Takito had told him about it but knew that his sensei had never been the type for making jokes. Most kids of his age would not have agreed for doing so would meant that they would have to leave everything they had known in their life; their family, home, the way of life as they had known. But when his sensei had finished explaining everything about the plan, Naruto had agreed without the slightest hesitation or thought.

He knew that the decision that he had made would change his life forever and that once he left Konoha, there would be no turning back but he did not care.

There was nothing here in Konoha that was important or precious to him, nothing that would make him feel any sense of loss, not even his own family.

Had Takito told him about this a year or two ago, he would have hesitated or gave some thought about it but that was when he still regarded his family as something precious to him.

Despite having the chance to train as a shinobi under Takito, Naruto had initially hoped that his parents would still notice him, that they would at least spend some time with him or that he was not in any way forgotten by them. He could clearly remember the disappointment that he had felt every day but never had he once given up on them. Each time he had felt upset, he would tell himself that he needed to be patient, that he had only need to wait a little longer, that it would all pay in the end. Each time he had stored the feelings he had deep inside himself and convinced himself that it was for the better of everyone.

Then came the year when he and Natsuki was to enter the academy. He remembered never having felt so happy when his parents told him that he could finally join his sister with the training. It seemed at that time that all the waiting had come to fruit, that his family wasn't going to be excluding him anymore.

Of course, he knew at that time that he was going to have to go through the same basics and theories that he knew already and put on a false image here and there which was going to be difficult but that was nothing to what he was getting back.

Things looked like they were finally returning to the way they were meant to be.

Even better was during that time when Takito had told him that he had a choice to stop his training or continue to the end, and it didn't take much for him to choose the latter although it meant making his schedule much busier. The blonde had felt guilty to just leave the shinobi after everything that the man had done for him and figured that the least he could do was to finish his training, a decision which he did not come to regret.

Because as the months went by, Naruto began to feel that something wasn't right again. That despite the times he now get to spent with his family, he once more had felt that things weren't the same as he had before. He started sensing that something crucial was missing during all those activities that he did together with his family. Like before, he had ignored it, choosing to believe instead that the he was again imagining things. But the doubt only remained in his head and grew stronger with each passing day.

And then it hit him.

Nothing had changed.

Oh, he could now join his family in some activities or get a bit of his parents' attention if he tried hard enough but in the end, everything was the same as they had been when his parents had chose to exclude him from the training. That in spite of the changes that had taken place, the fact was that his parents still favoured his sister over him.

His parents would asked Natsuki about how her day had went and did not do the same for him sometimes. When he had 'achieved' something during the training with them, they would only give a brief acknowledgement while praising Natsuki for even the simplest of achievements. During the visits he went on with his family, his parents were always mentioning about Natsuki but the only time his parents did mention him was when someone asked or talked about him or when it was his birthday where they would just wish him so before completely forgetting about him.

And this time, there was no reason for them to be doing so.

On what grounds did they had left that allowed them to treat him as though he did not matter that much in their eyes?

Something had snapped inside him on that day when he had realized that all his hopes and waiting had been for nothing, that he had been wasting his time. Naruto wasn't sure what it was but he had suddenly found himself feeling more and more distant from them with each passing day. Where he should have been happy to get to do something with them, it now felt more like a task that he had to complete just to get their attention off him. He couldn't exactly say that he hated his parents but neither could he say that he trusted them or feel in any way connected to them.

But what about his sister Natsuki?

Well, he did not have the same feelings as he had with his parents when it came to her despite everything she had; it wasn't her fault that the Kyuubi was sealed inside her or that their parents and the rest of Konoha had chose to pay more attention to her. On one hand, the two of them did not talk with one another as they used to and Natsuki seemed to be more content to be mixing with the many friends she now had than him. But the same could have happened to him had it been him that the Kyuubi was sealed into. Not to mention that it was a great burden that she was carrying although Natsuki had yet to realize it.

Still, Naruto was unsure whether he could regard her as someone important to him.

Perhaps things were better off as they now were. Everyone in the family seemed to be content with their own lives and Naruto felt that sooner or later, he would be completely forgotten.

And what about the village? Naruto knew that he could not blame the people of Konoha for noticing his sister more than him. It was up to them to decide who they wanted to talk to and it was not like they bore him any ill will.

Not that it mattered to him anymore. He had stopped caring for the company of his family or any of the villagers ever since that realization.

Not surprisingly, he preferred spending his time with Takito, the only person in this village who he really cared about. While he may not be related to his sensei by blood, the man could understand him and his pain and was the only one who had offered him comfort and words of advice whenever he had felt down. It was Takito who had noticed him and actually cared for him in the end.

It was the shinobi who had brought him around the village, showing and teaching many things that his parents never did. And he did it all in spite of risk of being discovered by village and getting into harm's way. The only person who knew and understood his personality and goals.

Naruto knew that there was nothing that he knew about the war he would be joining in but it gave him the opportunity to start a new life, to leave the mess that has inhabited his entire life behind. Free to pursue the life that he wants and not the ones forced upon him by others. To have the chance to follow the person important to him and protect him.

Not to mention there was also a chance that he may learn more about his sensei's past in Kirigakure.

Even after nearly five years training as a shinobi under Takito, Naruto still knew very little about his sensei's past.

What was it that happened at Amegakure that Takito did not want to remember?

Why were the books that his sensei had passed to him regarded as forbidden texts there?

And why did his sensei seemed to have a certain dislike for Konoha?

Despite the attempts he made to learn more about his sensei, they served only to create more questions for him and the books he'd read in both his father's library and the Konoha library did little to help him in his search for answers. The only thing he knew was that Amegakure was once a major hidden village in the Elemental Countries that fought against Konoha during the Second Shinobi World War.

Somehow, Naruto felt that he would be able to find some of the pieces behind his sensei's past in Kirigakure.

Yes … there was nothing for him here in Konoha and it would be in everyone's interest if he were to leave Konoha and follow his sensei to Kirigakure to find a better future and even perhaps … another reason for him to become a shinobi.

With that single thought in his head, Naruto knew that he was making the right decision in his life and allowed sleep to finally claim him for the night.

* * *

-Explanation-

[1] Just something that I picked up from the naruto wikia. (It's been so long since I've watched the anime or read the previous manga chapters that I was worried that I might forgotten something that could affect the entire fanfic)

[2] I felt that since Takito is an independant ninja, it would make sense if he tried to establish the borders of how he was able to operate during the war before joining it. The conditions that Takito have asked for will be mentioned in future chapters.

[3] In the old fanfic, Ao had openly questioned Takito's motives for joining the war which I now felt was wrong. If your leader asked you to get someone's support, you shouldn't be doing anything like that. It would only make securing the support of that person much more difficult unless that person is a really open or nice guy.

* * *

-Author's Note-

Chapter 4 is now complete.

I'm going to get working on the next chapter immediately and I will talk about most of the stuff regarding the fanfic from there. (Sorry if it sounds rude)

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.

Thank you for your reviews and for reading this story.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 5

The sun was setting, its slow descent casting an orange haze above the horizon and bathing the Hidden Leaf Village in shades of gold and amber.

The village's activities were drawing to a halt; its people retiring back to their homes or nearby establishments to rest for the day.

Sitting on the rooftop of his house, Naruto took a deep breath, enjoying the evening breeze that had came blowing down to the village from the nearby hills as he quietly watched the setting sun. As the sun slowly receded into the horizon, he felt an unexplainable emotion stirred deep within his heart. He had witnessed many sunsets before in his life but none of them will be as meaningful or important as this one.

It was the last sunset that he was probably going to see here in Konoha for a very long time, a reminder of the events to come in a few more hours.

That the life he had known was coming to an end.

Two weeks ago, he had been given the green light by Takito to start the preparations for the journey to Kirigakure. Before that had begun, he had to go through several briefings with his sensei about the plans for leaving the village.

Closing his eyes, he thought about the map that he had memorized back at the shop and the route to Kirigakure that the ninja had plotted in his head.

Naruto was to wait in his room tonight where his sensei will come to pick him up at midnight. The two would then sneak out of the village although how they were exactly going to get out of the most powerful hidden village without being seen by those guarding the walls was something that the shinobi did not elaborate in detail. Now, if they did manage to leave the village without a hitch, things should be relatively simple from there although it was going to be physically taxing. For the most of the journey, they will be avoiding the roads whenever possible and travel through the woods and plains to mask their movements. There was going to be little for rest as they will be constantly on the move.

During the journey, they were going to make a stop at a city by the name of Otafuku Gai [1]. According to Takito, there were a few people that the man needed to meet first before they could head to Kirigakure. From there, they will go straight for the port city which connected the Land of Fire with the Land of Water and oversaw most of the trade between the two nations. There, they would be meeting up with a certain contact by his sensei who will get them to the latter unnoticed.

Apparently, the side that they were going to be fighting against was well aware of the support that the rebels were procuring throughout the Elemental Countries. News has it that in order to counter this, many of the ports in the island nation had been closed down while the major ones were put under heavy watch. Permits were being distributed to certain individuals and the 'loyalists' as Takito had come to call them had declared that anyone who entered the Land of Water without the permit would be treated as an enemy and persecuted with extreme prejudice.

It was a smart move in Naruto's opinion, but one that should have stirred up a political storm by now in the island nation.

After all, they were doing something that only the water daimyo had the authority to do. [2]

Anyways, once they had successfully left the port city, they should be ideally safe from the Konoha ninjas as they would be outside the area where the ninjas did not have the jurisdiction to be. And if they were lucky, they might be able to meet up with some of the missing-nins at the port city.

Going back to the preparations, he had immediately set himself to work after that, securing all the necessary items for the journey. That had meant travelling equipment, shinobi gear, medical supplies and enough food to last for a few days. He had also taken the effort of concealing his true looks through the use of genjutsu as he had went to buy those supplies and equipment, making sure that he did not buy them all at a single shop and had changed his appearances for every shop he had entered. Once his disappearance was noticed by someone in the village, Konoha would send every available ninja to search for him regardless of whether they cared for him or not [3]. An investigation would be made and everyone in the village would be questioned thoroughly. It was important that no traces that could lead his pursuers to him and his sensei was left behind.

It will make things harder for those searching for him, forcing them to cover everywhere instead of a specific area. That way, every step that he took meant widening the circle that the Konoha ninjas would have to search and lower the chances of finding him. There was no need to be bothered by the possibility of being tracked down by the ninken; Takito had told him that it was going to rain heavily tonight which will wash away all scent of him and his sensei.

After checking and re-checking the items he had bought, he had brought them to medicine shop to see if he had prepared enough for the journey.

Most people would have considered this to be unbefitting for a shinobi but Naruto knew better. For all the training he had, it was still his first time doing such things. Better to ask for help and learn from it than to not do so and risk creating problems during the journey. After all of that was done, he had them all sealed into a scroll. But when that was all over, he had noticed that he still had ten days before the day would come.

With his sensei busy making his own preparations, the remaining days had been spent undergoing his own physical exercises that were longer and more intensive that what he usually did or practiced his skills for several hours. When night came, he did what he could to learn about the Land of Water by reading a few books. He wasn't sure what he was going to find when he got there but he was determined to make sure that he would not be caught unprepared.

Time had went by quickly and before he knew it, it was his last day in the village.

Still watching the orange ball of light or what's left of it, the Yondaime's son suddenly felt a hand clasped on his right shouder. Turning his head, he was surprised to see that it was Takito who had a scroll case slung across his shoulder.

When did his sensei get here?

And how did he not notice his presence?

"Takito-sama, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked. He was about to stand up and face the ninja but his sensei stopped him.

"I came to see how you're doing Naruto. In a few more hours, we'll be leaving this village and I wanted to be sure that you're ready," Takito replied, unslinging the scroll case and putting aside as he sat beside his student.

Their conversation started with the preparation they had made, doing one last check to see if they had left anything out. Finding that they had not, Naruto went on to talk about the things he had done for the past ten days but stopped minutes later when he heard the sounds of the sister shouting happily as she ran downstairs from her room in the house. Naruto gave a sigh; that can only mean that his father had just returned home from his work.

He could easily picture his father hugging his sister at this current moment, asking her about how her day went before giving her something that he had gotten on his way back home. While Natsuki checked her present, his mother would then come out to greet his father before returning back into the kitchen to finish preparing dinner. In a few more minutes, it would be time for dinner where they would all gather at the dining table to eat.

It had been so for the past five years and would probably the same for the next few years.

The only difference is that by tomorrow, there would be a person missing from this pattern.

Well, he'd best be getting back into his room.

"Thanks for checking on me Takito-sama but I better get back inside. I'll see you tonight," he said but just as he was about to head back, Takito stopped him.

"Wait. There's something that I need to ask you before you go Naruto."

"What is it?" Naruto asked, curious about what his sensei wanted to talk about.

"I know that I've asked you this question before but I'm going to ask you one last time," the ninja said in a very serious tone that Naruto had rarely seen him use. "In a few more hours, we will be leaving this village for Kirigakure. That means that you will be leaving your family, home and the life that you have known until now. Once this happens, there is no turning back. So I am going to ask you one last time, is this the path you wish to take?"

"I won't lie to you Naruto, the path before you is one filled with danger and uncertainties. The world is a cruel and unforgiving place and you will experience many hardships and burdens that will test your resolve and force you to question your beliefs. If you choose to step back, do not hesitate to do so. It is not an easy path - the one you have chosen and I will not blame you if you decide to turn back."

When his sensei was finished, Naruto quietly thought about everything that Takito had told him.

A minute passed before he turned to look at the ninja and fixed his sensei with the same determined look he had given him years ago.

"Yes," the blonde said, the voice filled with confidence. "This is the path that I want to take. This is the life that I want and no matter what happens, I will not back down. I promised you before that I will be the greatest ninja that you'll ever know Takito-sama and I mean it."

There was a tense and silent moment that lasted for a while before Takito finally nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"I see ..."

Turning to look at the darkening sky, Takito mumbled something that Naruto could not hear before facing him once more.

"Well if that is the case, then there is something I would like to give you," the shinobi said as he pulled out a scroll from the scroll case and handed it over to his student. Taking the scroll with both hands, Naruto wanted to ask his sensei about its contents but his sensei raised his hand, gesturing him to be silent. "Naruto, you are no longer a civilian. From here onwards, you are officially a shinobi. Perhaps not one in the eyes of your family or anyone else but to me, you are now one. And in time, you will be seen and respected as one to the rest of the world. I want you to know that I am proud to have you as my student. And that no matter what happens, know that I will always be there to help you whenever you need it," Takito stated.

"As for what's inside the scroll, it's a surprise. I suggest that you wait until everyone is asleep before opening it. I can assure you that you'll have plenty of time to check them out before midnight."

Stunned by his sensei's words, Naruto did not know what to do for a moment.

In the end, he bowed respectfully at his sensei. "T-Thank you Takito-sama."

Takito waved his hand dismissively as he picked up the scroll case and began walking away.

"There is no need to thank me Naruto, you've earned it. Now, I do believe that it is time for us to get going with our own things. I'll be seeing you at midnight."

With that, the shinobi disappeared in a swirl of black mist.

Naruto stood where he was for a while, staring at the spot where Takito had been seconds ago. He then remembered that it was time for dinner and hurried back into his room.

The last thing he wanted was for someone in his family to come and see why he had yet to come downstairs for dinner.

* * *

The time was 11.00 pm when Naruto was finally sure that his entire family was asleep.

Standing in his dark room, he went to his bed to get the scroll that Takito had gave him.

Everything else that was important was already sealed in a scroll which he had kept in his own scroll case. He had checked the entire room one last time after dinner and had found nothing in the room that he had left behind that might become a clue to his departure. Having slept early in the afternoon, he was fully awake to carry out whatever that needs to be done to get out of Konoha and for the journey ahead.

To sum it all up, he was ready to leave this village and travel to Kirigakure.

This meant that he had an hour on his hands to see what was inside that scroll. With the door locked out of caution, he proceeded to open the scroll.

When he activated the seal, he was surprised by the contents of the scroll that appeared before him.

It was a complete set of ninja clothing and a kusarigama meant just for him!

From the outside, the clothing looked like any ordinary civilian clothing but further examination revealed several unique differences. An armour was concealed in between the layers of cloth at the body section. At the sides of the trousers, the Yondaime's son found several hidden pockets with enough space to carry a few small and basic ninja tools. The ninja clothing also came with a pair of ninja sandals, metal shin and arm guards and shinobi gloves.

It didn't take long for him to realize that the shinobi clothing had a particular advantage.

The shinobi clothing Takito had given him looked similar to those worn by the Anbu. However, it had an extra stealth capability which lies in the fact that the body armour was concealed. Without the shin and arm guards and the gloves, he would looked like a normal civilian. This meant that he could blend among the civilian populace without much problem and still retained some additional protection for his body. Putting the entire set on, he noted that it suited him perfectly. More interesting was that it was rather light and did little to impede his movements. And despite being light, Naruto somehow did not doubt its ability to protect him.

For the kusarigama, there wasn't anything special about it although it looked like it was of exceptional quality. It was a bit heavier than the one he used in his training but he was sure that a few hours of practicing with it should get him adjusted to it.

As he spent more time inspecting his present, he wondered if his sensei had them made in the Land of Iron and delivered here. Both presents felt like they were of great quality and based on the knowledge he had, the blacksmiths in that land were easily capable of making such weapons and armour.

And it wasn't the first that these same people offered their services to those who weren't samurai.

Looking at the clear starless sky from the window in his room, Naruto silently made a promise that he would do his best to make his sensei proud. It was the least he could do after everything Takito had done for him. No one else had ever done this much for him; not even his own parents and the blonde doubted that they would have done so even if they had chosen not to neglect him.

He checked the time through the small clock that he had in his room.

11.40 pm ... twenty minutes were all that remained before his sensei would be coming here.

Seeing that tonight was going to be full of sneaking, he decided to only wear his 'civilian' clothing and kept the rest away. His main priority was stealth and getting involved in a fight was to be avoided at all cost. If he was to wear all his armour, any patrols could instantly identify him as a hostile. It was true that most of the villagers was asleep by now and the shinobi patrolling the village would be suspicious with those whom they weren't familiar with but it would give him a chance to avoid trouble no matter how slim it may be. [4]

With nothing else to do, he laid down on his bed and waited anxiously for his sensei.

* * *

It was 11.42 pm and nearly the entire village was asleep.

The night was rather peaceful and quiet but that would all be gone in less than an hour due to the coming storm Mirikatoji Takito thought.

The shinobi was at the Hokage Mountain, standing in front of a large memorial stone that was made purely of marble and had a list of names engraved on it. It had been erected a year after the Kyuubi invasion as a memory to those who had lost their lives during the bijuu's onslaught.

For some, it was also a place for them to pray for their deceased friends and relatives whose bodies were never recovered on that fateful day. Like them, the memorial stone had served as a place for him to pay his respects to the deceased Sandaime for the past decade. With the third Hokage's body laid to rest with the rest of his clan in the clan's estate, it was the only place for Takito to do so.

And now, it was time for him to pay his final respects to his friend.

Lighting up some incense, he knelt before the memorial stone on both knees and muttered a silent prayer. As he prayed, he remembered the peaceful look on his friend's face during the last moments of his life and the promise he had made to the dying kage.

It had been almost a decade since that day but it still felt as though it had happened just only yesterday. At least his friend had passed away peacefully, it was the least the Sandaime deserved after everything that he had done for the Elemental Countries. The third Hokage's ideals of peace may have been naïve but they had noble and something that Takito had always respected.

It was a pity that Sarutobi's dreams of peace can never be realized.

He did not know exactly how much time had passed as he prayed but felt that it was time for him to get moving and finished his prayers. Putting the incense into a nearby pot that was prepared by the village for public use, he then pulled out a scroll and took out an item.

It was a shinobi headband with the symbol of a leaf on it.

Given to him by the Sandaime during the early years of their friendship, it had been a sign of his unofficial support for Konoha.

The third Hokage had always wanted him to join the village and live alongside with them, an impossible request by the end of the third war.

After the nine-tailed bijuu's attack, he had kept it due to his promise to look after Naruto and make sure that the boy became a fine shinobi. But now that his student was going to leave Konoha for good, there was no longer any need for him to hold onto it. Placing it beside the memorial stone, he stood up and gave a respectful bow before taking his scroll case and turning his back to it.

"I'm sorry Sarutobi," Takito said as he walked away. "But I can't forgive them ... not after everything that has happened. Farewell my friend and know that Naruto will be a great shinobi as I have promised you."

Upon reaching the stairs, he stopped and took a deep breath, pushing all thoughts of his past away and focusing on the current task. He had about ten minutes to get to the Namikaze estate which was more than enough time for him. After getting his student, the two of them will sneak out of Konoha and head for Kirigakure. Deactivating the genjutsu seals, his civilian disguise was gone and he was revealed to be in his shinobi clothing. As he slung his scroll case across his shoulder, Takito turned to look up at the sky where several dark clouds were gathering.

It was time.

* * *

-Minutes later-

The low rumbling of thunder could be heard as Takito got closer to his destination.

The shinobi moved quickly through the trees and bushes, covering as much distance as he could in a short period of time and barely making any sound as he did so. He kept a careful lookout for any hidden traps or patrolling ninjas although he knew that there weren't any.

Of course, this was not the case years ago.

During the early years of his stay here in the village, security for the Namikaze estate was tight and it had been difficult for him to infiltrate the estate back then. The surrounding area of the estate back then had once been filled with many complicated traps and several squads of Anbu that would patrol the area all day and night in an elaborate pattern that was changed every day.

After the Kyuubi incident, Konoha's position as the most powerful and influential hidden village was greatly weakened.

With the loss of so many shinobis and the death of the Sandaime who had been responsible for maintaining close ties with the other hidden villages, leaders and influential people, the Hidden Leaf Village had found itself vulnerable and easily threatened by the other major hidden villages.

Those days had been filled with many tense moments, with the village's enemies ready to strike at the slightest hint of weakness and its allies coming close to breaking their ties. At that time, everyone knew that the village could not afford any setbacks and it was agreed by the council that every measure must be taken to protect the Yondaime and his family whose reputation and influence was the main reason the village was still standing. But as time passed, Konoha was able to lick its wounds and with that, the estate's security began to wane.

By the time Naruto was six, security for the Namikaze estate was anything but tight.

The many years of peace had caused the people of Konoha to become arrogant, allowing complacency to worm its way into the village once more.

Not that Takito was going to be bothered by it; he did not cared about the village after the Sandaime's death and the entire thing only made his duty much easier.

Sighting a large clearing ahead, he stopped and crouched behind a nearby bush. Moving the leaves and branches aside with his hand, he watched the clearing before him, his eyes wary. Standing just a few meters away from him was the wall that separated the estate from the rest of Konoha. Scanning the clearing for any signs of people, he was convinced that all was clear and chose to make his next move. Stepping carefully out from his cover, he made his way to the wall. When he was only a few steps away, he halted and dropped to one knee before opening his scroll case.

Currently, the only remaining defense left in the estate against any intruders was a set of seals that Minato himself had created on the walls.

Designed to detect anyone that tries to enter the estate, if the intruder's chakra did not match those that the Yondaime had keyed into the seals, the intruder would be struck by a powerful jutsu that would render him or her paralyzed.

A burst of chakra would then be released by the seals, one strong enough to alert every single Konoha ninja in the village.

Furthermore, the security seals were designed to be invisible to the naked eye and only those who had good chakra sensor abilities or fuinjutsu skills had a chance of detecting them. To make matters interesting, the seals could not be disabled through normal means without triggering the rest of them for they were all linked together to form a chakra circuit.

If any of the seals was deactivated, the circuit would be broken, thus activating the rest of the seals.

He had to admit, the seal work was a masterpiece and was an effective security system against anyone.

Well, anyone that wasn't adept in the art of sealing.

Opening his scroll case, Takito pulled out a large blank paper with a large seal drawn in the middle and spread it wide open. Activating it, he watched as the seal began to glow with small discharges of electricity forming around it. Seeing that the seal was working properly, he then placed the paper onto the wall. Upon making contact with the wall, the electric discharges spread across a large section of the wall and produced a buzzing noise.

It lasted for several seconds and his seal glowed brighter than ever.

Then, the electric discharges faded away, the seal stopped glowing and several of Minato's security seals become visible.

Takito smiled - his seal had done its work.

No matter how complicated or powerful a seal was, it was created through the same set of rules. Because of this, the greatest threat to any fuinjutsu user was another fuinjutsu user. Anyone who practiced the art of sealing would be able to disable or counter a certain seal if they possessed enough creativity and was prepared to spend a lot of time and effort into it. This was common knowledge among fuinjutsu users and Takito found it hard to believe that Minato had put his entire trust into a single set of seals to protect the estate. Then again, perhaps he shouldn't be surprised at all.

Ever since the destruction of Uzushiogakure, there had been a steady decline in the number of fuinjutsu users.

Today, the only known fuinjutsu experts in the Elemental Countries were the Toad Sannin, Orochimaru and the Yondaime.

At the rate things were going, fuinjutsu might one day become a lost art. Minato must have probably assumed that there was no one talented enough in the art of sealing to break past his seals and that the snake wasn't brave enough to threaten him and his family. He chuckled inwardly as he tried to imagine the chaos that would ensued in the village once they realized that the Hokage's son had mysteriously vanished without a trace or sign. Tensions with the other hidden villages were bound to rise sky-high with the rumours and diversions that had been planted and Takito was curious to know about how the council was going to react to this crisis.

And that wasn't taking into account the reactions by the other major factions.

Oh, whatever Minato's reasons were, the fourth Hokage was sure going to regret it after tonight.

Back to the seal, he had spent many sleepless nights examining the security seals and was able to create a seal to breach the seal defenses. His seal was an imitation of the security seal but was designed to reveal the security seals and attract the chakra flow to create a parallel circuit around several of those seals. Because it was designed in the same style as Minato's, the security seals would connect with it without any problem. From there, he could disable the security seals without the chakra circuit being broken as the chakra was now passing through his seal instead of them. It took him a few minutes to disable enough seals for him to enter and the moment the task was completed, he took one last look around before climbing over the wall.

On the other side, he headed to the large house that was his student's home. Stopping at the section where Naturo's room was located, he proceeded to climb up to the window of his student's room. When he was at the side of the window, he paused to check the time.

12.01 am - he was right on schedule.

With that, he knocked lightly in the window in a certain pattern that he and Naruto had agreed on.

Knock! Knock!

Naruto's head shot up, his eyes wide open as he stared at the window.

There was someone knocking on the window. Had Takito arrived?

He remained at his position, unsure of what himself. Then it happened again.

Knock! ... Knock! Knock!

There was it was again and it was the second phase of the signal. Slowly, the boy got off his bed and cautiously approached the window, drawing a kunai to strike at a moment's notice. So far, whoever it was that was knocking on the window was getting the signal correct and Naruto was sure that it was his sensei but he waited for it to completed nonetheless.

Knock! Knock! Knock! ... Knock!

The last phase was correct and Naruto put his kunai aside.

Quickly but quietly, he slid the window open and watched as Takito came in. His sensei was wearing the same shinobi clothing as the one he was wearing but it looked old and worn. The man looked as though he had went through countless of battles and missions in his life.

"I see that you've decided to make good use of my present," Takito said as he examined him.

Naruto nodded as he grabbed his scroll case from his bed.

It was pleasing to know that the two of them had the same idea with their choice of not wearing any of their armour.

"So, are you ready to get going?" his sensei asked.

A grin formed on Naruto's face as he used his genjutsu to change his appearance to the boy Minori [5], feeling a sense of excitement stiring in his heart as everything that he had trained for was going to be put to use. "Hai Takito-sama."

"Good," his sensei said and gestured at the window. "I'll brief you on the plan when we get to the village. I now need you to head down and wait for me. I'm going to make a quick check to see that there's nothing left that may serve as a clue."

"Sure."

Leaving his sensei to his task, the ten year old boy slid out of the window and attached himself to the wall using his chakra. He noted that it was drizzling as he climbed down to the ground. If what his sensei had said was true, it was only going to get heavier. He waited for his sensei to finish his inspection which didn't take long; the blonde saw the man coming out of the window a minute later. Sliding the window close, the ninja joined him on the ground.

"Everything seems to be fine," Takito said before facing at the direction where the wall was. "Come on, time to get moving."

Both teacher and student stealthily made their way to the section where the ninja had entered the estate from. As they got over the wall, Takito motioned for his student to wait. Standing beside the ninja, Naruto watched with fascination as his sensei proceeded to reactivate the security seals which he had never seen before and gingerly extracted a large seal which he assumed was what his sensei had used to enter the estate. When it was all done, there wasn't a single trace of the ninja's work and his father's seals on the wall looked like they are working perfectly as though they had never been tampered with at all.

He had heard a lot about his father's skill in the art of sealing from the villagers but had never actually seen his father at work or examined any of his seals. Takito might know a thing or two about that and the knowledge would definitely aid him in his own seal work when he was allowed to start working on his own seals.

But that would have to wait for another time, he had to focus on getting out of the village.

* * *

-12.18 am-

"Stay here for a moment Naruto, I'm going to take a look up ahead."

Naruto watched as Takito head onwards and disappeared into the darkness before taking a look around. The two of them were in a dark alley somewhere in the market district. Seeing that he had some time on his hands, he leaned against the wall to a quick break. They had entered the village several minutes ago and ever since then, had been sneaking through the village, all while his sensei had told him about the plan. They were going to a certain part of the village walls to the east of the village. The ninja had actually been spending every night for the last month observing and studying the village's defenses and had discovered that the section they were now heading for was lightly guarded than the others at midnight.

With the reduced visibility thanks to the rain that was now heavier than normal, it was the best spot for them to make their escape.

There had been other plans that his sensei had also came out with but was to only be used had the current plan not been feasible. It explained why Takito had not told him about the plan on how they were going to leave the village earlier as his sensei wanted to be sure of which plan he was going to carry out. [6]

They had been on the constant move through the village, jumping from building to building at one time and moving quickly through the alleys and small lanes at another. No attempts were taken to move in absolute silence, the rain had drown out all possibility of their movements being heard.

They had done their best to stay in the shadows, avoiding any sources of light as much as they could and dashing from one dark spot to another if they could not. All this time, it had been a bit difficult for him to keep up with his sensei who seemed to be unaffected by the heavy rain and all the climbing, bending over and dashing they had been doing until now. They had been fortunate to have not came across any of the patrolling ninjas although Naruto thought that he did spot one or two from a fair distance every now and then. And while they did come across a few civilians, they were either drunk or too busy trying to escape the rain to notice them all if they did actually see them to begin with. He spotted his sensei returning and approached him.

"The street ahead is clear," Takito said. "We're making good progress so far and it won't be long before we're there."

"How much longer will it take?"

"I would say around five minutes if we keep moving at out current pace," Takito answered.

And that was the end of the conversation as they resumed their journey in silence. Ignoring the flashes of lightning, the Yondaime's son noticed that it was getting harder to see what was ahead of him as the rain only grew heavier. He had to strain his eyes just to see anything further than a few meters and at times had to use his hands to shield his face from the constant hail of water droplets. It was the worst storm he had ever experienced in his entire life. And here his sensei was, not bothered by it all, still moving at that same speed they had been going until now and making turns here and there without any problem as though the entire storm was just a drizzle to him.

Takito was used to this, considering that he had spent most of his years in Amegakure, a place where it tended to rain nearly all the time according to the books. It was giving him a clear advantage over everyone in Konoha who did not have to face this sort of thing every day.

True to his sensei's words, it wasn't long before the walls of the village came into sight. But as they got closer, the shinobi suddenly stopped and raised his hand, prompting Naruto to do the same. Instantly, the two of them remained still in the middle of a barely lighted street with Naruto watching his sensei who was eyeing their surroundings as thought he had sensed something.

Then, the man turned to face his student and spoke his mind.

"Someone's coming this way," he whispered. "We best hide."

Upon hearing those words, Naruto quickly mimicked his sensei who quickly pressed himself against the wall of the buildings on his left where the shadows were. For a moment, nothing happened and Naruto strained his eyes to try to pick up anything up ahead in the deep darkness and rain but to no avail.

But it didn't take long before he saw something.

It was a lantern and Naruto could somewhat make out the faint outlines of a person holding it. And he or she was heading down the same street where they currently were. Remembering his stealth training, the blonde flattened himself as much as he could against the wall. Hoping that the rain and the darkness were enough to cover him, he kept still and watched as the unknown figure got closer.

When the figure passed by the two of them, Naruto could see that the figure wore a ninja vest that had a four pointed star with a fan in the center on the shoulder which revealed the figure to be a member of the Konoha Military Police Force [7]. So far, it seemed that the police had not spotted the both of them although he or she was moving very slowly which annoyed Naruto to no end.

Then, much to his fears, the police turned to look exactly at where he was hiding and Naruto felt his heart skipped a beat.

Instead of panicking like any ordinary children would have done, the Hokage's son felt his training kicked in and remained calm, holding himself from shaking with fear. With a great deal of effort and discipline, he forced himself to breath at a slow and steady pace. Reminding himself mentally to stay calm over and over, the blonde waited for the police to be finished with inspection. Time itself seemed to slow down as the few seconds that went by suddenly felt like hours to him. In the end though, the police turned his attention away from him at last and walked away to continue patrolling the village much to his relief.

Despite this, he chose to stay rooted at his place until Takito finally emerged from his hiding spot a minute later and did the same.

"Did that person spot us?" Naruto asked the shinobi to be sure.

His sensei did not say anything but looked in the direction which the police had walked away to for a while before shaking his head. He then gave Naruto a worried look. "Are you alright Naruto? You seemed a bit shaken."

"I'm fine Takito-sama," Naruto responded. "It's just that for a moment there, I thought that we were going to get discovered."

"I see. Well, if you believe that you're okay, we better get moving."

"Got it."

Continuing their journey, they stopped when they were only a street away from the wall and climbed up a nearby building. Taking position at the top of the building, Naruto watched his sensei scanned the wall and the surrounding areas before them.

"I see only two ninjas guarding this area. Barely enough to keep this entire area properly monitored."

Takito then turned to look at Naruto.

"Alright, this is it Naruto. Once we get pass the walls, we will be free to be head for Kirigakure. Stay low and follow me as closely as you can. When we get to the wall, the both of us are going to have to climb and get over it as fast as we can. Don't worry about those two, we'll be making our move when their attention is away and I doubt that they will be able to see us in this condition. Is that understood?"

"Hai Takito-sama."

Confident that his student understood his orders, Takito turned to look back at where Naruto assumed was the guards.

Minutes passed before his sensei finally gave the signal for them to make their move and jumped down. Naruto followed him, landing onto the street with barely any sound and quietly made his way past the streets to the wall.

When he reached the wall, he quickly ran up the wall with his sensei, his mind racing with all sorts of thoughts.

What if the guards that Takito had mentioned about were looking at this way now?

Had they spotted the two of them?

Were they even now signalling the alarm or calling for the other ninjas?

Nothing of that sort happened and as Naruto reached the top of the wall, he deftly flipped himself over and landed smoothly on the ground on the other side with a grunt. "Quick! Follow me!" Takito said. Naruto instantly got up and followed his sensei who was already running into the forest straight ahead, unable to believe that they had just gotten out of Konoha without being spotted at all.

As they got further away from the village, a single thought ran in his head.

He was free.

* * *

-12.43 am-

They continued to go deeper into the forest for several minutes before Takito gave the order to stop and take a break.

The village itself was no longer in sight and Naruto could only see trees in every direction.

Standing on a tree branch, he stared back at the direction which they had came from. He easily pictured the rest of his family sleeping peacefully despite the heavy pouring of rain, unaware of the events that were taking place tonight. They were likely to not notice his disappearance until it was dinner time and will never understand how or why he had left. A part of him wanted to leave behind a message for them, to explain his reasons for leaving and clear any misunderstandings with them. But he could never do that for it might exposed his intended destination and Naruto, like his sensei was not about to take chances.

He closed his eyes and whispered, "Goodbye."

He stood there for a moment and took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he released his breath and with it, the remaining connections that he had with his family and the village. When the blonde opened his eyes, he felt completely reborn as a new person.

This was it.

He was no longer Naruto Namikaze, twin brother of Natsuki, son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.

He was no longer a citizen of Konoha.

He was just Naruto; a simple boy with no one but his sensei as his family.

A ninja who is not a part of any hidden village and does not owe his allegiance to anyone but his sensei.

A boy who had pushed the reset button and now was free to choose from a multitude of paths that were now laid before him.

A choice that only he alone can make and will define who he is.

And tonight, he would be travelling with his sensei to Kirigakure to aid the rebels in the civil war in hopes of a better future.

He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder and knew that it was Takito. "Come Naruto, let's get going."

"Yeah."

Turning away, the ten year old boy followed his sensei, jumping from tree to tree as he now took his own place in a world of infinite possibilities.

* * *

-Explanation-

[1] I took this from some website while I was checking out the world map for the Elemental Countries. I don't know whether it actually exists but if it do exists and if there is anything interesting events or characters from the manga or anime in that place, I would appreciate it if someone were to let know me about it.

[2] Each major hidden village are given different authorizations by the daimyo of that nation. This together with the political relations between the two groups for each nation will be shown later on and will play a slightly important role in the entire fanfic.

[3] Naruto is making an assumption that even if no one actually cares for his well being, they would still go after him as he is still the Hokage's son and will cause some embaressment to the village if news got out that he had disappeared from the village. And that some sees him as a stepping stone to gain more political power and influence in the village.

[4] In the previous fanfic, I made Naruto go for the opposite instead - wearing the full shinobi gear. Thinking back, it was pretty stupid of me to write that in the previous fanfic. His current task is to absolutely avoid a fight at all cost and wearing all the armour does not help that in any case. If he gets caught, he could still pretend to have misbehaved by attempting to sneak around the village at night and just so happened to get caught in the rain storm.

[5] Though not mentioned, it is assumed that Takito did change into a fake appearance by the time they got to the village.

[6] In the previous fanfic, Takito also did not explain the plan for escaping the village to Naruto earlier but did so for no apparent reason. Truth is that during the old version, I had planned for Takito to do something that involved hurting one of Naruto's family but chose not to tell Naruto about it but changed it at the last minute.

[7] It didn't felt right in my opinion for an ordinary ninja to be patrolling around the village with a lantern and thought it was more suiting for a member of the Konoha Military Police.

* * *

-Author's Note-

Chapter 5 is now complete.

Those of you who have read the previous version will notice that this chapter is nothing more than the combination of two chapters.

I felt that those two chapters in the previous version were too short and seeing that it was a waste of time to create two separate chapters with nothing much to add, I thought that it was best to combine them both and add in a few stuff.

I also took out the things that should not be there such as some of Naruto's emotions with leaving and that with his family. I think that enough has already been established in the last chapter and it was time to move on with the story.

Like I have said in the last version, the next chapter is going to be told from the view of the people of Konoha when they discovered that Naruto is gone.

It's good to be able to get started from where I had last stopped in the previous version.

While I don't know whether I had achieved much by rewriting the entire fanfic, I do know that I am going to continue on writing this fanfic and will not drop it at all unless something really bad happened in my life whereby I am forced to stop doing so. I think that it's time for me to delete my previous version. (I will do that just before I head off for my vacation if such an option is possible)

And now, it's time for me to tell my readers something important.

I'll be going on a vacation in a few more days and I won't be bringing me laptop along. While I am going to straight away get started on the next chapter, it is doubtful whether I can finish it before the day when I will be going on the vacation. So there is only two outcomes that I can see from this.

Outcome 1 is that I will be able to finish the next chapter before I go on my vacation.

Outcome 2 is that I won't be able to finish it and will only update this fanfic a month later.

I'm going to try my best but I think it's safe that you readers place your bets on outcome 2.

THANK YOU all for reading my fanfic and for the reviews.

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 6

-8.18 pm-

By the time his work was finally over, the sun had all but set.

Leaving the office behind, Minato began to make his way back home. He met several villagers who had the same idea as him on the way and many greeted him a good night which he returned in response. A strong chilling wind blew past him and the Yondaime brought his haori closer, taking note that tonight was unusually colder than normal, probably due to the storm. It had been a terrible night for the ninjas and military police who were responsible for last night's patrol if the reports were anything to go by. So fierce was last night's downpour that many of the village's night activities were disrupted and at one point, a few of the villagers needed help to get back to their homes. The storm had only died off by early morning and even then, it had continued to shower lightly for almost the entire day.

Thankfully, no one who had been injured and Minato doubted that a storm as fierce as last night's was likely to ever occur again.

He had spent the entire morning going through various reports of the day before going around the village to check on the ninjas who had to endure the storm and commend them on their work. Then came the meeting with the council where the main focus of the discussion had been on the civil war in the Land of Water. The recent action taken by Kirigakure was threatening the livelihoods of the merchants and traders at the port city and many were voicing their discontent at the situation. There were also fears that the war might escalate and engulf the eastern region of the Fire Country and considering the belligerent reputation of the Hidden Mist Village and its Mizukage, such a scenario was possible. [1] With the growing pressure from the east, the fire daimyo had seen fit to task his village with the mission of resolving these issues and guarding the country's interests.

After bearing through the arguments and talks that had went back and forth in circles, everyone had finally agreed to send a ninja team to Kirigakure to see if some sort of a diplomatic solution or compromise could be achieved before taking any further action. If that failed, the team can act as observers and assess the situation at the island nation and provide information that will help them plan the village's next move. And so he was then left alone to think of the right people to assemble for the mission and deal with the paper work that had double in size, no doubt due to the mess that was being created by the war. Completing them all had taken him hours and he was now exhausted from all the reading and writing. His house coming into sight at last, Minato smiled at the thought of being able to rest and spend the night with his family. Reaching the entrance, he opened the door and was greeted with a blast warm air accompanied by a strong delicious aroma of food. Taking in the smell, he recognized the aroma to be that of several of his favorite foods which prompted him to raise his eyebrows.

Was today a special day or something?

Strange, he did not remember any important events or incidents taking place on this date. Was it all just a coincidence?

Closing the door behind him, he was about to remove his shoes when Natsuki suddenly came charging out from the living room and lunged at him.

"Humph!" Minato grunted as he lowered himself and caught his daughter in his arms.

"Welcome home dad!"

"Hello Natsuki," Minato said as he embraced his daughter in a hug before gently letting go of her. "How was your day?"

"Great tou-chan! Both mom and I had went out to do some shopping. We also went to visit a few of my friends. It was fun!"

Minato chuckled lightly. "I'm sure it was. By the way, I'm sorry but I did not bring anything back for you today."

"It's okay tou-chan. What's more important is that both mom and I have cooked a few of your favorite food tou-chan."

"Really now?" Minato asked, curious to know why that was the case.

"Yeah. Kaa-chan said that you were going to be very busy today," his daughter answered. "She said that you were going to return home late and was going to be very tired. So I asked her if we could try cooking some of the food that you liked. I also managed to help her with a lot of things."

"Welcome home," a voice which Minato knew was his wife's said and he looked up to see her walking towards him. The two adults hugged each other before kissing, earning a disgusted noise from Natsuki who looked away. "So how did it all went?" Kushina asked.

"Well, there were a lot of problems throughout the day but I would say that it all worked out in the end."

"That's good to know. Anyways, you must be hungry and eager for some rest. Come, we better get started with dinner before the food gets cold."

Minutes later, the three were all seated at the table, ready to feast on the food that were laid out on the table and were still warm. Minato was about to get started when he became aware that something or rather someone was missing at the table. It took a while for him to understand that the missing person was his son Naruto. "Say, where is Naruto?" he asked. Kushina frowned when she realized that her husband was right; their son was not with them. This was the first time Naruto was not here for dinner which was unusual seeing that it was already late. And now that she had noticed it, she also remembered having not seen her son or heard from him the entire day although she was not really worried about that for it had happened several times before.

"You're right," she said to herself before asking her daughter. "Natsuki, do you happen to know what your brother is doing?"

Natsuki shook her head. "No mom."

The red-haired jinchuriki had been with her mother all the time and never did the thought of her brother came into her mind at all until now.

"Well, he must be in his room. Why don't you go upstairs and call your brother downstairs for dinner?"

"Yes kaa-chan."

The ten year old girl got off her seat and ran upstairs. When she got to Naruto's room, she knocked on the door.

"Nii-san, it's time for dinner," she called out and waited for her brother to come out from his room. He did not.

"Nii-san, it's dinner time," she said once more, knocking slightly harder on the door. There was still no reply.

"Nii-san, can you hear me? It's dinner time. Tou-chan and kaa-chan are already downstairs. We're all waiting for you."

When nothing happened, the girl gave an annoyed look. Just what was her brother doing in his room? Believing that she had waited long enough, she decided that the next best course of action would be to enter the room and see what was going on. And if Naruto wasn't doing anything important, boy was she going to give him scolding. Their father had just returned home and everyone were exhausted from the work they had done today. Tou-chan and kaa-chan were hungry, SHE was hungry and here her brother was in his room keeping them all waiting!

"That's it, I'm coming in!," she declared before opening the door and walking in.

To her astonishment, Naruto's room was pitch black and she wondered what was going on. "Nii-san, if this some kind of a joke, it isn't fu-" she said before flipping the light switch on. "... nii-san?" There was no sign of her brother. His room was neat and tidy with all his belongings arranged in an orderly manner. There were several stacks books arranged neatly at the side of the bed and her eyes widened at the sight of them. She knew that her brother was an avid reader but that amount of books was truly overdoing things. Not even Sakura read that many. She tried to remember when was the last time she had last entered her brother's room as she did not recall seeing those books being there before. Definitely for a long time. There was also a book on her brother's bed and being inquisitive, she walked over to the bed and picked it up, flipping the book over to look at the cover.

It was a book about the people of Earth Country and their culture.

Natsuki frowned; even if it was about jutsus, anything that involved a lot of words was something that she was never exactly good in. The only people who were really into that sort of thing was Sakura and her brother Naruto.

'Did nii-san do anything else than studying and reading?" she thought.

Back at the academy, her brother had always been a bit quiet and distant. He was always reading a book or listening to their instructor in class and when that was over, he would chat with their fellow classmates for some time before heading off somewhere which Natsuki assumed was the library. Like the rest of her friends, she saw him to be weird at times though she realized that he was not like that when the two of them were younger. A part of her wondered if there had been something that had caused him to be like that. She barely talked to him these days so she did not know what was going on in his mind.

Placing the book back at its original position, she looked around the room again for Naruto, the feeling of worry slowly taking hold in her.

Where was her brother if he wasn't here at all? It was already past eight and close to nine!

Something did not felt right here and unsure of what to do, she quickly went back downstairs to the dining room.

"What's wrong Natsuki?" Kushina asked, seeing the look on her daughter when she returned. "And where is your brother?"

"Nii-san isn't in his room," the girl stated.

"What do you mean?"

"I've looked everywhere in his room but I couldn't find him kaa-chan."

The two adults at the table exchanged worried looks. If their son was not in his room, where could the boy possibly be at this hour? Minato decided to ask his wife. "Kushina, when was the last time you saw him? I know that he was here for dinner yesterday but other than that, I have yet to see him today."

Kushina shook her head. "I'm afraid that I am the same with you Minato. When Natsuki woke up, I had thought that I should bring her out for some shopping and to see some of her friends. When we got back, we were so busy trying to prepare dinner that the thought of our son did not really came into my mind." Minato nodded. He had to admit that there were several times when the same happened for him. Naruto can be so quiet at times that it was easy to forget about him when Natsuki was around. It was never a problem though for either one of them would always end up finding their son to be at home doing just fine. They had never really put much thought to it after a while as they had started to assume that Naruto would be alright and each time proved to be true.

Except this time. Knowing that it was fruitless to think about it, Minato stood up and went to get his ninja vest and haori.

"Dad, what are you doing?"

"Don't worry Natsuki, I'm just going to look for your brother."

His wife gave a concerned look. "Minato, I'm also going with you."

"It's alright dear. I'm sure that I'll find him," Minato answered as he put on his haori. "I'm sure that it won't be long so the two of you should go ahead and have your dinner without me. I'll be back as soon as I find him. If anything important comes up, I'll be sure to let you know." What that, the Yondaime vanished as he used his famous jutsu - the Hiraishin no Jutsu.

"Kaa-chan, could something have happened to nii-san?" the red-haired girl asked her mother.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he is fine," Kushina assured her daughter although she did not sound so sure of herself. "And I'm sure that your father will be able to find him soon enough."

* * *

Minato watched as the entire village came into view; he was now standing on one of the statues of the Hokage Monument.

Without wasting anymore time, he placed his fingers on the statue and focused his chakra on it. One of the greatest skills that he had ever developed was the ability to detect others within a certain area. By the end of the third war, he was also able to differentiate between friend and foe by identifying the chakra signature of those whom he had sensed. But it wasn't enough for him. Over time, he had managed to gradually improve the area of detection several times over. Should another war break out, he could use it to detect enemies from extreme distances or to get a quick understanding of both the enemy's and allies' positions on the battlefield.

With this, it won't take long for him to pinpoint his son's location.

He closed his eyes and waited as the entire village was scanned and its people were revealed to him. It should be easy for him to locate his son since he knew the chakra signatures of his family. But to his shock, Naruto was nowhere to be found. He could sense his daughter and wife who were back at home but there was no sign of Naruto. 'No, this can't be right.' [2]

He attempted the detection again and once more after that but the result was the same. Now he was really worried. If someone did not turned up in his sensor, there were only three possible reasons. One, that the person was beyond the area of detection, two that the person was in an area that blocked his detection or three, that he or she was-

Getting up, the Hokage made a quick survey of the village, locating the areas where the clans were situated. Naruto must be in one of the clan compounds. A notable amount of clan compounds were normally heavily sealed or had a powerful barrier against sensors especially the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans.

Though what could the boy possibly be doing there at this time? No, knowing why was not salient right now. What's more important was that he find his son, the questions can come when that was accomplished. He tried to think of the child that Naruto was likely to spend his time with so that he knew where to begin his search but his mind came out blank. Thinking hard, he suddenly realized that there was barely anything that he knew about his son's activities - about what his boy usually did, who he was mixing with, the things that he preferred to talk about. Heck, the only thing he could only say about his son was that Naruto seemed to read a lot and visited the library often. The Hokage figured that he would spend more time working on knowing what his son was up to every day after tonight.

Maybe he should first pay a visit to the librarians whom he had taken the effort of knowing when Naruto had asked him and Kushina for the permission to use the library. Considering that Naruto was a regular visitor of the place, it was impossible for them to have not noticed his son. Even if they had not seen him today, they could provide him with something on his son's activities which can be a clue on his son's current whereabouts.

* * *

-9.23 pm-

Kushina was troubled.

It has already been more than half an hour since Minato had left to look for their son and he had yet to return. With that detection ability of his, he should have been back by now with their son. She glanced at her daughter who was sitting next to her on the sofa. The both of them had lost their appetite and had chose to wait for Minato to return with Naruto. She pondered at the thought of leaving Natsuki in her room under the protection of several seals while she went to check on the situation. It was unbearable for her to be waiting here doing nothing while her husband was out there looking for their boy.

Just as she was about to come to a decision, Minato suddenly appeared in front of her and Natsuki. For a moment, she felt relieved but that was when she noticed the look on Minato's face and that Naruto was not with him. "What happened? Where's Naruto?" A spike of uneasiness twisted in her stomach. It took a while before he spoke and his expression was uncomfortable as he explained everything that had transpired from the time he had left to now.

Minato was unable to find Naruto using his detection skill. He had proceeded to visit a few of the librarians who were in charge of the Konoha library. What he had learned from them was troubling; they had not seen Naruto at the library for the entire day. But that was not bad news. It turned out that there were actually several days where Naruto did not came to the library at all. Minato knew this because he had inquired about his son's activities at the library for the past few days to see if he could find something that would hint on where his son could be. Instead, the librarians had informed him that they had never seen the boy during any of those days. They had even kept a record of the people who had visited the library and true enough their son's name was not found on any of those days. And while the boy did come visit the library more than any child of his age had, it was not at the regular rate that the Yondaime had described to them.

"But Naruto had told us that he had been to the library for the past few days during his free time on those days," Kushina recalled aloud.

Does this mean that their son had been lying to them about what he was doing the whole time?

But for what reason?

And if he was not at the library, where had he been then and what was he actually doing on those days?

Something was terribly wrong here.

"I know Kushina and I don't know why he's doing this. We better split up and go looking for him. But before that ..."

The Yondaime looked at his daughter. "Natsuki, can you tell us who your brother normally play with or what he does?" [3] Naruto may not be going to the library all the time but the same could never be said for the academy. Someone would have noticed if he had done that. And why would he do so when he could spend his time with his friends there?

"I don't know ..." Natsuki mumbled. "I'm not sure if nii-san has anyone he usually spends his time with."

The two adults blinked their eyes. "Why do you say so?" Kushina questioned.

So Natsuki told her parents about her brother's behaviour - about how he never really hanged out with her and the other kids after class was over though he did join in their conversations and on how he had the tendency to head off without anyone knowing where. Needless to say, Natsuki's explanation was a surprise for her parents. Not only was Naruto going out doing something no one knew was, it seemed that he did not exactly socialize much with anyone of his age. He was a quiet person but they had always believed that he still mixed with the others as much as any other normal child of his age.

"So you don't think that your brother spends his time with anyone? Or that no one knows what he does?"

Natsuki nodded. "Yes kaa-chan, I'm sure of it. I don't remember ever seeing him spend a lot of time with anyone and my friends and I never really thought about what he was doing. We had always thought that he was at the library if we did not see him anywhere."

Minato shook his head as he turned away. There was just so many things about Naruto that they were not aware of and he had a sinking feeling that they had only scratched the surface. Had they truly been that oblivious about their son's life? "In any case, it looks like we're going to have to check with the other clans and their children to see if they have our son or know anything about him," he finally spoke. "I'll start with the Hyuuga clan," he added before teleporting once more.

Kushina proceeded with her earlier plan, bringing Natsuki to her room before activating the seals. It should be more than enough protection for her daughter while she and Minato looked for Naruto. Getting out of the estate, she listed all the kids that were in the same class with her two children and their instructor in her head. They were still the best chance she had to finding her son and she decided that she would start with the chunin Iruka instead before going from clan to clan, hoping that he knew something that the other kids may not.

It mattered little to her now if Naruto had been lying to them and was doing something behind their backs. All she cared was that she find her son safe and well.

* * *

-Hokage's office-

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama but I was unable to find anything."

"I see. Keep trying."

"Hai," the Anbu acknowledged before shunshining away. Rubbing his face wearily, Minato took a look at Kushina was recounting everything that had happened yesterday when their son was still around to her friend Mikoto Uchiha. It was truly kind of Fugaku's wife to offer her help in the search for Naruto when she could be back at home sleeping but he doubted that it would make any difference.

His head spun with the countless possibilities that could have occurred to Naruto and he resisted the urge to slam his fist on the desk in frustration.

It was hard not to feel despair.

They had checked every clan and household, gone through every area and compound that had blocked his sensor and had found nothing. Their children's classmates and instructor had gave the same answer as Natsuki. That Naruto did not spend much of his time with any of them, that they had not seen or heard from him today and that they did not know where he normally went. With their worst fears realized, he had immediately summoned the military police and Anbu to conduct a sweep of the entire village. But progress was slow. It was past midnight which meant that the majority of the villagers were asleep and it was complicating the search efforts. The Anbu who had just left was in fact the first to report back from his search of district assigned to him after an hour.

Numerous tracking teams had been deployed around the village but Minato knew that it was a futile effort. With all that rain, Naruto's scent or his footprints were guaranteed to be gone for good if they did exist. His son had vanished without a single trace and there was nothing that he could do about it.

The Hokage paced around in an agony of discomfiture, trying to narrow the events that could have occurred to Naruto.

The first thought that came to mind was that someone had abducted his boy.

It was a highly plausible. Kushina herself had been the victim of one, kidnapped by the ninjas of Kumogakure whom he had managed to stop. And they had many enemies and parties out there who were prepared to do such a thing. The rain could cover their tracks and avoid being tracked down. But how were they able to get past the security seals? No, it was impossible for them to have kidnapped Naruto at home. He had just checked the seals at the estate not too long ago to confirm that and had found nothing wrong. No sign of anyone trespassing or tampering with the security system. He had also went to his son's room and would have noticed something if that had been the case.

Minato stopped his pacing suddenly. Unless they had targeted his son when the boy was outside the estate. They could have observed him for some time and knew his timetable. Due to everyone being used to Naruto's lack of presence including him and Kushina, no one would have noticed if his boy was gone until was too late. They had always assumed that he was fine and the kidnappers would have surely taken advantage of that. But that did not explain how they were then able to leave the village without the patrols and guards spotting them.

The Yondaime mentally slapped himself.

How could he assumed these things when there was no evidence that suggested so?

He was allowing his desperation and worries to dictate his thinking.

He mustn't be like this or he was going to end up making mistakes that would have dire consequences for him and the entire village.

He just needed something ... anything that could lead him to his son.

It was then that an Anbu with a bird mask came into the office. "Hokage-sama, I believe that I may have found something."

That had immediately caught his attention. "Report."

"I was searching the southwestern district that you have assigned me to, looking and asking about your son. It was close to an hour when I came across a shop that was closed down and empty. By asking the people around, I discovered that the owner of the shop was an old man by the name of Rikuto Arikato who had left the village yesterday by the northern gate. What had caught my attention was that those who had known the man said it was strange that he was swiftly left without saying why. According to them, the man had lost his wife and a friend during the Kyuubi invasion and had chose to stay here in Konoha because of that."

"I found his actions suspicious so I decided to investigate further. Apparently, Rikuto had a grandnephew living with him whose name is Minori Arikato. While Minori's appearances did not match Naruto's, the description of his height and age were close. The boy's behavior can be considered dubious as he was not seen during most of the days, did not mix with anyone but his granduncle and the time period when he was seen around coincides with your son's absence. During the last few days, Minori was no longer seen or heard from. Attempts by Rikuto's neighbours to ask about the boy were responded with hostility by Rikuto. When Rikuto had left, Minori was not seen with him."

"I went to check the shop to see if I could learn more. It was completely empty and the rooms were cleaned thoroughly which suggested Rikuto was trying to hide something. There were traces of concentrated alcohol found which is effective in erasing any prints, scent or any of that sort. Hokage-sama, if I may say, I don't know how your son had went missing but I have reason to suspect that this Rikuto had something to do with it." the Anbu concluded.

Minato carefully considered everything that Bird had said and realized that this was what he could be looking for.

There were a lot of unknown variables but it was a lead that he could follow.

Then he remembered that the man had left by the northern gate and froze.

It did not went unnoticed by Kushina who had also been listening to the Anbu's report. "What is it Minato?"

Minato did not heard her. His mind was working out that piece of information that had came into his mind. If you were to leave by the gate at the north, it meant that you were heading for either one of the northern nations and most of them were unfriendly to Konoha and the Fire Country. But what's worse was that one could head for either of the two major countries by the northern route which were the Earth country and Lightning Country. That's where Iwagakure and Kumogakure were respectively. [4]

He came to a decision. "Bird, I want you to call everyone back here now. Once done, I need you to work together with the police and see if there's anything else that you can learn about Rikuto and his grandnephew."

The Anbu nodded and left.

The Yondaime went to his desk and prepared to summon a messenger toad. Jiraiya had been out of the village for several months keeping an eye out for any activities by Orochimaru. He needed to tell his sensei about the development here and put his spy network on high alert for his son. He would also send a message to the border guards to do the same. When the ninjas get back, he would send them out to track down this Rikuto. The man may had around two days of a head start but there was still time to get to him (if he was indeed guilty).

There was a chance for him to find his son and he was determined to see that that was the case.

Minato Namikaze had never failed his village before and he would be damned if he could not do the same for his family.

* * *

-Explanations-

[1] Despite the ports around the Land of Water having been under watch or closed down, a fair amount of people had managed to leave the island nation for a safer place with most of them being at the eastern region Fire Country. While some are content with settling in for good and staying out of the war, others sympathize with the rebels and among them are providing whatever help they can to aid the cause. Considering that Kirigakure's recent move to ignore the water daimyo's authority and that under Yagura's reign has an infamous history of ruthlessly hunting down its rogue ninjas or indiscriminately killing those it deems to be against them back at the island, it is understandable for many to fear that the hidden village may unleash its bloody habits on those it thinks are supporting the rebels at the Land of Fire.

[2] I don't know (or I may have forgotten) how Minato's detection ability works so I assume that his ability of his works more like a radar. If this is wrong, feel free to correct me.

[3] If you're wondering why Minato didn't ask this earlier, he wasn't expecting to not find Naruto with his sensor or that he was going to get no answers from the librarians but more questions. Rather than to go from clan to clan, he believed that Natsuki knew something about her brother and could point him in the right direction straight away.

[4] While Minato has checked Naruto's room (though it's not mentioned) and has seen the book on the bed, he still thinks that it is only a coincidence. For now that is.

* * *

-Author's Note-

Chapter 6 is complete.

While it looks as though Takito had not planted much false leads, there is actually more to come in a later chapter. As for the entire of Konoha's and Naruto's family's reaction, I believed that it would make more sense if they had actually tried desperately to look for him first and only when they had failed to do so would the village be thrown into panic while Naruto's family would show their full feelings and feel the full fallout to the boy being gone. Both Minato and Kushina are strong ninjas and should be able to keep their emotions in check for the time being.

This latter part will only be shown much much later.

Someone had asked about whether Naruto will be part of the seven swordsmen.

I am still undecided about it but it's most likely no. In my view, the title 'demon' is given to those that display a violent, ruthless or brutal manner of dispatching their enemies rather than to do with being one of the seven swordsmen. And I want to make Naruto to use a different weapon than the sword. The seven swordsmen will still play a role in the story.

The next thing I want to discuss is about the explanation sector. Do you guys like it? Do you think that I should continue with it or that it had been a waste of time?

Chapter 7 is going to be about Naruto's arrival at the port city where something very, very interesting is going to happen. If you have read carefully, you probably know what's going to happen next.

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.

Thank you for your reviews and for reading this story.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 7

The two of them were up before dawn.

They chewed on a simple meal of pickled vegetables and dried meat before packing their belongings into their scrolls and resumed their journey in silence. Keeping a fast pace all morning, their destination came into view when the sun had reached its highest point.

Standing on a hill, Naruto had a good outlook of the entire port city and he had to say: it was an impressive sight.

Buildings covered the entire landscape below; hundreds of houses and apartments that he was familiar with, stone walls and fortifications that made the defenses back at the Hidden Leaf Village look pathetic in comparison and giant warehouses, establishments and estates that far surpassed any of the Konoha ninja clan compounds in terms of size and area. Ships of various sizes were entering and leaving the harbour while on land, a steady line of people and merchant caravans could be seen. As he and his sensei joined them and drew closer to the city, Naruto felt pleased that they had successfully gotten here without any incident. Their journey that had taken them over four days was coming close to an end.

Inside, the streets were crowded with more people than Naruto had ever witnessed, moving fast and ignoring everything else around them as they got on with their busy lives. Traders and shopkeepers shouted boasts about their merchandise and their prices, attempting to outdo each other in attracting customers. A woman argued fiercely with a merchant as they haggled over the price for a few jars of spices. A bunch of burly men stomped past them, carrying large wooden crates which Naruto assumed were cargo that had come from the ships docked at the harbour and were heading for one of the warehouses. He spotted a carriage which he had only known in books carried by servants and escorted by men armed with katanas and dressed in expensive clothing who pushed anyone in their way aside to clear a path for whoever that was inside that carriage.

The environment here was completely different from the one he had known back at the Hidden Leaf Village or seen at Otafuku Gai and the disguised blonde found it interesting. He had thought that he knew what it was like to have so many people and activity going on in a single place from the festivals he had attended in his previous life but this was beyond anything that he had seen or imagined.

A pity that he did not have the time to look around the port city.

Well aware of their purpose for being here, he asked his sensei about their contact. "Oji-sama, who is this person that we're supposed to meet?"

"His name is Osamu. Runs a certain 'shipping' business. We'll find him at the harbour which is about a few minutes walk from here."

Another question popped into Naruto's mind. "Do you think that we'll find any of the rebels here?"

"It's possible. They're likely to be at Dejima."

'Dejima.' Naruto thought.

It was the wealthiest district in the port city. An area originally built to serve as a trading post for the foreign traders when the port city was but a small village barely worth noticing to anyone. When the Land of Whirlpools rose to become one of the great powers in the continent after the first war, the village became a crucial trading hub between Uzushiogakure and the Fire Country and had enjoyed a sudden growth in both wealth and power. The once small community of fishermen grew to become the port city that nations would and had fought each other over. When the sudden and mysterious destruction of Uzushiogakure came, the Water Country took its place as the primary trading partner of the port city and its people became the main occupants of Dejima.

During that entire time, the district expanded and became more than just a place where trade is conducted. Scholars would gather at Dejima to discuss and trade knowledge while emissaries from the Fire Country, the Water Country and before Uzushiogakure's destruction, the Land of Whirlpools would meet there to conduct diplomatic talks. The family members of the foreign traders and nobles often came to visit the port city and would stay in Dejima. In time, they came to regard it as their second home. Today, Dejima was the lifeline of the port city and its denizens were now so powerful that they had a voice in the city's policies. [1]

It made sense for the rebels to be there.

There was bound to be many there who would be friendly to the rebels' cause for good reasons. Some will sympathize with the plight of their fellow countrymen back at the island. Most, angry at the loyalists for their recent actions that had damaged their businesses. And from what he'd heard, even those who weren't of any bloodline could still end up as victims of Kirigakure's persecutions.

With a war going on and Yagura now defying the water daimyo's authority, anyone could be targeted next including the people of Dejima.

It would be in their every interest to see the current Mizukage toppled.

"How long will it take before we're able to get going to Kirigakure?" the boy asked.

"Once we're done meeting with our contact, it would normally take around a few hours for our transport to be arranged."

"Then we should use that time to find and contact any of the rebels here. Start with Dejima and then head on to the other parts of the city," Naruto suggested. "They might know something that we don't and if there is any of them who doesn't have a way to get to the island at minimal risks, we can convince them to follow us. We need to get as many of those who are on our side there it we want to have a good chance of winning this war. That is if this Osamu agrees with it first."

His sensei gave a look of approval. "You're learning."

The older ninja then lengthened his pace. "I am planning to do that. You will not be joining me however. Once we're done with our meeting, I'm going to find ourselves a room to stay and I will drop you there before heading to Dejima. Don't get me wrong, I do not mind you following me but you need to keep a low profile until we get to the other side. Try to get some rest while you can - there will be little for that when we get to our destination."

* * *

The room was simple.

There was a bed with a single mattress, its sheets recently laundered.

A chair and a table that had two drawers with an ewer of fresh water on it.

Thin curtains hung over the window and a large worn carpet on the floor.

Putting his scroll case and equipment aside, Naruto lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling above. He did want to join his sensei to find and meet the rebels that could be in the city but understood the gravity of the situation he was in. If Konoha was to come here looking for him and hear about a man and a boy about the same age as the Hokage's son going around the port city looking for the Kirigakure rebels, that would be enough reason for them to focus their search efforts for him on Kirigakure. From there, it was only a matter of time before he gets discovered. [2]

Whether or not the rebels would come to support him, they could not afford to make an enemy of the Hidden Leaf Village when they still had a civil war to fight.

They would be forced or willing to give him up to Konoha or at the very best allow him to leave quietly and either outcomes were undesirable to Naruto. It was hard for a hunted ninja without any connections or favorable reputation to survive for long in this world. Takito could help him out in that scenario but Naruto did not want to rely on his sensei more than what he was already doing.

He had to take responsibility for himself and there was no way he could keep his promise if he had to depend on others all the time.

For this, he needed to make sure that the loyalists were defeated and establish a secure position for himself before he could afford to have his identity exposed.

Stifling a yawn, Naruto realized that he could use a few hours of slumber.

He could feel the fatigue coming back.

It had started to plague him when they were halfway through the journey for they had only about four to five hours of sleep whenever they had decided to stop moving for the day. Sleep itself had also been difficult for him for some time ever since that act he had committed at Otafuku Gai three days ago. Each time he had tried to go to sleep, the memories of what he had done at his first stop would come gnawing at his mind.

* * *

-Flashback-

The lighting down here was bright, casting large shadows of two individuals who made their way down to the lower floor. The sounds of the district's inhabitants above had faded away and Naruto could only hear the footsteps made by him and his sensei. At the bottom was a tunnel that was narrow and dirty. Drops of water were leaking from the ceiling forming small puddles of water on the ground and a few rats scurried about.

They went past several side passages and when Naruto took a look at them, all he could see was utter darkness.

'What are we doing here?' Naruto asked himself inwardly. The entire place felt cold and uncomfortable to him as if there were some dark secrets hidden down here that no one was ever supposed to know. Secrets that would condemn one forever should one ever learn them. His body was tense, ready to react to any danger that may be lurking about. His sensei beside him seemed not to notice his discomfort. The man had brought him to this run down apartment when he had returned from his meeting with whoever that he was supposed to meet. There was a task for him to carry out, his sensei had told him when they had started moving out and that had been it. No word was spoken between the two of them after that. At the end of the tunnel was a large metal door. A man stood by the door, his eyes trained on the two approaching figures. A large wicked blade was strapped to his side and it was caked in dried blood. The man gave Takito a brief nod and the two started talking in hushed voices. Naruto tried to overhear the dialogue between the two but it was hard and he managed to catch only snatches of it.

"... is this ... is ... condition?"

"... alive and well ... wasn't easy ... had to ... boy?"

"... don't ask ... did ... say ..."

"... all written ... hurt ..."

"... understand ... work ..."

"... as always ..."

Takito drew out a stack of notes and placed it into the man's hands. A faint smile formed on the man's face and he opened the door which lead to a dark room. Entering the room after his sensei, Naruto felt himself shiver. His instincts were telling him the obvious fact that something was not right. The door behind closed and Naruto was about to whirl around when the lights came on.

The boy took a step back in shock.

In the middle of the room was a man tied to a chair.

He sported all sorts of wounds over his body and there was a large brown sack over his head. He was hunched forward seemingly unconscious, perhaps even dead until Takito pulled the sack away. The prisoner jolted upwards, his eyes darting in every direction in surprise and confusion. His mouth was tightly bounded with a cloth and muffled sounds came out from it. Black and blue bruises were all over the man's face and the eyes were blood-red.

"Naruto." The voice came from Takito who threw the sack away and went to stand next to him.

"Takito-sama, what is going on? Who is this person?" Naruto said, his eyes never leaving the prisoner in front of him.

"A dead man," Takito said. "I will not go into the details about who he is or how he had ended up like this. What I will tell you is that this man here is an enemy and represents a potential threat to us. With a certain amount of persuasion, I was able to get everything out from him or so I believe. There is no longer anything of value to us that he has and keeping him alive would be a waste of resources and might put us in a difficult position in the future. As such, the best option now would take care of him before anything undesirable may happen. And this is where you come in Naruto. You are now a ninja and it's time for you to take your first step as one. Being your teacher, it is only right that I assign you this task."

His sensei held out a kunai for him.

The older shinobi's expression became cold and dry. "Naruto, I want you to kill him."

There was a dead silence in the room. Naruto's eyes flicked to the prisoner. The prisoner had stopped struggling and was staring at him.

The blonde looked back at Takito, looking for a sign that this was just some sort of test but saw nothing of that sort.

The air was full of tension.

"Kill him," Takito said. "Will you do that?"

"... yes," Naruto finally answered.

"Then take this."

"Hai." His hand reached out and took the kunai from his sensei and Naruto slowly walked over to the man who was now struggling harder than ever. When he was but a step away, the boy paused. The man's eyes were staring directly at his and Naruto could see the fear and desperation in his eyes, begging him not to do it. Tears were streaming down the prisoner's face. The boy wondered whether the man really had to die. Takito had told him that the prisoner was an enemy and a potential threat that needed to eliminated. So why did he felt so reluctant to do it? The kunai felt heavy in his hand.

But before hesitation could take control of him, the words said to him by his sensei years ago when they had first met came back into his head.

'Being a ninja doesn't mean that what we are doing is good. Most of the missions we do serve only to profit a few while others suffer in the process. We may not like the job but once taken, we will do it for that's who we are.'

This was what he was meant to do as a ninja.

There can be no room for hesitation or doubt.

Naruto felt resolved to finish the task and clenched the kunai in his hand.

So where should he strike?

He didn't want to make his target suffer any longer than he should.

It was inefficient and he doubted that he could stomach the idea of killing the prisoner slowly.

The neck of course - the best way to kill the man would be to slit the neck open. There were two carotid arteries in the neck. A severed carotid would result in unconsciousness within one to three minutes or less with death following shortly behind. [3]

It would be painless if he did it properly and more importantly it would be quick.

Going behind the prisoner and ignoring the man's weak struggles, Naruto held the kunai to the man's neck.

He took a deep breath and silently counted to three.

And with a slash, it was done.

* * *

They had immediately left Otafuku Gai into the darkening wilderness after that.

Never stopping until two hours later which Naruto had been grateful for. He had suddenly felt exhausted, a complete opposite of what he had been before that. He had eaten little that night, just enough to keep his stomach from growling. He had not felt like doing anything - not his usual chakra spinning exercises, not his pondering about the progress of his journey to Kirigakure or whether the Konoha ninjas would track them down, not even talking to Takito.

He had just sat there staring at a patch of earth for a long time before deciding to get some sleep. When he had closed his eyes, he saw the terrified look on the man he had killed moments before his death, how his victim had trashed about for a few seconds before becoming still.

And the blood ... he could never forget how it had come spraying out from the neck for an instant before pouring out of the wound in great amounts. [4]

No matter how much he had tried to wash it away from his hands, the red stain had remained on his hands.

The next morning, he had confided with his sensei about his nightmare and the feelings that had followed him after his kill. It felt shameful to talk about how wrong it had felt for him to kill someone when he had trained hard to do precisely that for years and he had expected Takito to become angry or show his displeasure at his behaviour when he was done. But he had found nothing of that, only understanding from his sensei. "There is nothing wrong with what you are feeling now Naruto. What you are going through is exactly the same thing that everyone does when they made their first kill. Well maybe not everyone but you get what I'm trying to say. It takes time to recover from that and even longer to get used to it. How that goes depends on you alone Naruto."

"When someone kills somebody or go through something similiar to that, there can only be two outcomes. Either the experience breaks him or that person becomes stronger, accepts what he has done and moves foward. I know that yesterday had been hard for you but do understand that it was for the best."

Heeding his teacher's words, Naruto had tried to keep his mind fixated on his mission and not dwell on the life he had taken. Talking with his sensei or making plans days ahead had become the best way of doing that and each time his thoughts drifted to what had happened back at Otafuku Gai, the blonde would take a huge deep breath and start doing either of the two. It wasn't easy and the memories still returned chiefly at night but the troubles they had brought diminished day by day and on the fourth day of the journey, they did not trouble him much.

The damage was done; the trouble he had sleeping before had made him easily tired for rest of the travel but he had pulled himself together.

He was a ninja after all, not a civilian and it was time for him to move on.

* * *

-Hours later-

Haku hid in the shadows, sticking herself to the wall of one of the towers as she scanned the docks.

There was no sign of their mysterious contact. Not that she was expecting to see the man yet, she had left at 11.10 pm which was twenty minutes before they were to come here and not much time had passed since then. She had been sent here to scout out the area to see if there was anything that might indicate that the meeting was nothing more than a trap. She jumped off from her spot, skirting the flickering pools of light as she went to different points in the harbour that offered a strategic view of the area. Finding nothing odd or suspicious, she sat on another building and watched. In an attempt to pass the time, she thought about the idea of returning to the Land of Water.

Six years - that was how long it had been since they had left that island when her master had failed in his coup.

Truth be told, she had a mixed view about coming back to her homeland. She had already lost everything dear to her there a long time ago so the Land of Water was just another place to her with a few bad memories.

But to her master, it had been his only goal ever since his exile.

She could remember the expression on Zabuza and the Demon Brothers when they had heard the call for all of those exiled by Kirigakure to return and join the war against the Mizukage's reign. She had seen the look of pride on their faces, the sense of longing to return back to the place they knew as home. To them, the civil war was more than just an end to all the running and hiding they had been forced to do every time the hunter-nins had tracked them down. It was a chance to serve the Hidden Mist Village once more, to return and fight for the place they cared about.

Returning back to Kirigakure was everything to her master and she would see it through no matter what.

And they were so close to achieving that. The only thing that now stood in their way to the Water Country were the blockades that Kirigakure had set up.

There was no way to get past them unseen and the odds of breaking through were stacked against them.

For some time they had been idle as her master contemplated several ways to get to Kirigakure. All that had changed today when they had received a visit from that stranger whom her master had recognized to be Mirikatoji Takito. [5] Haku had never heard of him before but she had promptly went on her guard. Not because he had found their hideout or that he had made the chunin twins very agitated but because there was something about the ninja that Haku felt was wrong. Before anyone could act, the ninja had raised his hands in a gesture of peace and had told them of his intention of joining the rebel's side in the civil war and that he knew a safe route to get to Kirigakure.

He had came searching for any rebels in the city to offer them the chance to follow him.

Her master seeing that there was no better way of getting to Kirigakure had agreed to the ninja's proposal to join along. [6]

They had then traded a few words with each other before the man had left.

She had tried to ask her master about Takito after that but Zabuza had refused to talk about it.

Her eyes sweeping the docks one last time, Haku turned away and was about to head back to her master when she heard a noise behind her, a footstep.

Suddenly, there was a kunai at her throat.

"Don't move," came a whisper.

* * *

-Explanations-

[1] Dejima does exists in reality. It was an artificial island built during the Edo period to originally constrain the Portugese merchants in Nagasaki because of the isolationist policy of Japan where no foreigner could enter Japan on penalty of death. Later, only the Dutch and the Chinese were allowed in Dejima. Over time, there were several European scholars who stayed there and Dejima became the center of medicine, military science and astronomy and many samurai would travel there to study. I've decided to adopt that into my fanfic.

[2] Naruto is just being extremely cautious, a habit that he has picked up from Takito.

[3] I don't know whether this is true; I had been searching a few websites for this. If anyone does know how slitting one's neck or throat works, please correct me.

[4] The same thing with [3] goes with this.

[5] Though not mentioned, Takito had went through several contacts and did some searching before he had actually found out about Zabuza and his group. And the meeting was much more tense.

[6] Though not mentioned, Zabuza was careful and suspicious about accepting Takito's offer. Takito may had at one point worked for Kirigakure but that was long time ago and if you readers recalled in one of the previous chapters, even Ao did not trust Takito.

* * *

-Author's Note-

Chapter 7 is complete.

If you were expecting something very, very interesting, I'm sorry.

This is the shortest and the least put in effort and thought chapter that I have ever written so far for this fanfic. The original plan for this chapter was to also put in Naruto's first battle. But my mind has not been functioning properly as it should be and I was eager to get my fanfic updated. If you're wondering what's going on at the last part, well, I think that I'm just going to keep you readers in the dark. (hehe)

Regarding the seven swordsmen, no decision has yet to made. I am still doing my research about it and contemplating the idea of making Naruto one of them. It will take a few updates before I finally make up my mind.

Now, there's another thing that I wish to inform to my readers. Recently, I have been watching RWBY. If you don't know what's that, it's an 'anime' (depends on how you define anime) by Monty Oum. Seeing that it had only started only like a month ago, I was real surprised to find several fanfics and crossovers out already. I will admit that I was caught in the excitement and was tempted to write one too. However, there is so little to work on and as such I have chose to stay in the planning phase and wait for more episodes of RWBY to be released.

I don't know whether I will write a fanfic or a crossover of it but I won't start on it until I have done a significant portion of this fanfic and have come out with a proper work schedule that will ensure that this fanfic will not be neglected.

The next chapter will be on Naruto's first battle, his arrival at Kirigakure and meeting with Mei. I am going to slightly reduce the descriptions and get the story moving faster. Don't expect an update for a while though, just as Zabuza has answered the call to return back to Kirigakure, I have to answer the call of two assignments that are due next Monday. XD

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written or have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them in your reviews.

Thank you for your reviews and for reading this story.


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